Introduction
The capital of the North African country of Morocco, Rabat is a historic city on the Atlantic coast. It lies at the mouth of the Bou Regreg River, opposite Salé. The two cities together make up the country's second largest urban area.
Places of interest
Rabat has wide streets and handsome public buildings and gardens. The oldest part of the city, still surrounded by walls, lies near the coast. Within it is the old Muslim district, called the medina. The historic Jewish quarter, or millah, is also inside the walls. The Casbah of the Oudaias is a fort that stands on a cliff above the Bou Regreg River. It has an impressive gateway and a garden. Near it is the Museum of Moroccan Art.
The Tower of Hassan was built in the 1100s as part of an enormous mosque that was never completed. Just southeast of the city walls are the ruins of the ancient Roman settlement of Sala, which is now called Chellah.
Rabat's royal palace was built in the 1950s. The king of Morocco lives there for part of the year. The city also has Muhammad V University and an archaeology museum. The bustling and colorful city markets, called souks, are popular places for residents and tourists alike.
Economy
Rabat's economy depends heavily on services, such as banking, trade, and the national government. However, goods such as carpets and blankets are also produced in the city. Leatherworking is another local specialty. Some factories in Rabat make bricks, while others process food.
Thousands of tourists visit Rabat each year. Roads and rail lines link Rabat with such storied Moroccan cities as Tangier, Marrakech, and Casablanca.
History
People have lived in the Rabat area since ancient times. The Romans started a colony in the area called Sala in the 1st century AD. In about 1150 that site was abandoned, and its inhabitants moved across the river to found the city of Salé.
At about the same time, Sultan Abd al-Mumin of the Almohad ruling family founded Rabat as a camp for Muslim troops who were fighting a war against Christian Spain. A ruler who came afterward, Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur, named the place ribat al-fath, meaning “camp of victory.” During his lifetime, which ended in 1199, construction began on the great mosque, the Tower of Hassan, and the city wall.
After 1609, Rabat and Salé attracted large numbers of Muslim refugees who had been driven out of Spain by Christian monarchs. Rabat later became the home of the Sallee Corsairs, the most feared of the pirates who plundered shipping off the coast of North Africa in the 17th century. The pirates brought great wealth to the town. An earthquake struck the town in 1755 and caused terrible destruction, especially to the great mosque. In the 1830s a tribe called the Oudaia were moved into a district in the old town, which has been known ever since as the Casbah of the Oudaias.
In 1912, the French moved into Morocco and established what they called a protectorate. They made Rabat the capital city. The French built modern, European-style districts. In 1956 Morocco gained independence. The city grew rapidly in the decades that followed. Population (1994 census), 623,457; metropolitan area, 1,385,872.
