Idea #446 – Exploring the Ribat and the medina of Rabat
Rabat (in arabic : الرباط, ar-Ribaaṭ, in berberian: ⵕⵕⴱⴰⴹ, Errbaṭ, in darija: الرّباط, er-Rbaṭ) is the economic capital of Morocco. The city was founded in 1150 by Almohades, who build a kasbah, said “ribat”, a mosque and a residence there. The current name comes from Ribat Al Fath, “the Camp of Victory”. Later, the grandson of Al-Mumin – Ya’ qub al-Mansur – enlarges and completes the city, surrounding it in particular with bulwarks.
After 1269, the Mérinides chose Fes as the capital, and Rabat entered a phase of decline. In 1515, the morisque explorer Hassan al-Wazzan reported that there were only hundred inhabited houses there. In 1609, following the decree of eviction of Philippe III, 13 000 Morisques found refuge there, so revitalizing the city. Until XIXth century, Rabat is known under the name of Salé-le-Neuf. In 1912, Lyautey makes of Rabat the seat of the general resident and the capital of the French protectorate in Morocco. In 1956, in the independence of Morocco, the city remains the capital of the country.
Since 2012, a set of sites of Rabat is registered on the UNESCO world heritage list. To visit: the Kasbah of Oudaïa, the tower Hassan, Mohammed’s mausoleum V, the necropolis of Chella built in 1339, the old phoenician, Carthaginian and Roman urban area, the royal palace of Dâr-al-Makhzen, the most famous of triumph gates ar-Rouah Rabat Bab, or the old medina protected from the ocean on the West by the outer walls of the Kasbah of Oudaya, encircled in the East by bulwarks Almohades and in the South by the wall of the Andalusians which separates the new town of the old city.
Some Pictures
Where is it ?
Rabat, Morocco