The Hassan Tower is a never-finished historical minaret located in Rabat. This building must have been not only the largest mosque but also the largest religious monument in the world in the 12th century.
When was the Hassan Tower built?
Construction work on this mosque began in 1196 at the initiative of the Almohad Sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur (1184-1199), grandson of Abd al-Mumin, founder of the imperial city of Rabat in 1150. Sultan al-Mansur wanted to make Rabat the capital of his empire, which in the 12th century extended from Tripolitania (Libya) to Castile (Spain). However, the work was abandoned just after the sultan died in 1199.
The Hassan Tower was supposed to reach a height of over 80 meters, but it reached only 44 meters. The building was later neglected by Yaqub al-Mansur's successors and deteriorated over time. In 1755, the Lisbon earthquake struck Rabat and destroyed the colonnades of the esplanade. The space of the Hassan Tower was restored in the 1960s when the Alaouite mausoleum was built on part of its esplanade.
Where is the Hassan minaret?
The Mohammed V mausoleum is a royal tomb located in Rabat, the capital of Morocco. It is located on the esplanade of the Hassan Tower and overlooks the mouth of the Bouregreg. The mausoleum contains the tomb of Mohammed V and his sons, Moulay Abdallah and Hassan II. It was built between 1961 and 1971, 10 years of work in which 400 Moroccan craftsmen collaborated. The architecture of the mausoleum was designed by the Vietnamese architect Eric Vo Toan, this building is characterized by its classical Arab-Andalusian style according to traditional Moroccan art.
Since 2012, it is part of all sites in Rabat inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as cultural property.
Sultan Mohammed ben Youssef, also known as King Mohammed V (after independence), was a monarch much appreciated by the Moroccan people. The sultan was also popular for refusing to enforce the Vichy regime's anti-Semitic laws, protecting some 400,000 Moroccan Jews. He is considered "the father of the modern Moroccan nation" and a key figure in the negotiations for Moroccan independence. The Sultan was exiled in 1953 to Corsica and then to Madagascar for his support of the Istiqlal independence movements in the country. This decision of the French protectorate will provoke waves of violence that will lead to the return of the sovereign in 1955 and the independence of the kingdom in 1956.
