Hassan Tower

Hassan-Tower

Hassan Tower or Tour Hassan is the minaret of an incomplete mosque in Rabat, Morocco.

The Hassan Tower is actually a 140-foot red stone minaret built during the reign of Yacoub El Mansour, a sultan of the Almohad Dynasty who ruled from 1184 AD. The tower was intended to be the largest minaret in the world along with the mosque, also intended to be the world’s largest. It is grand reminder of a mosque that was never completed.

The mosque was considered the cornerstone for establishing a new Muslim city. It was the first edifice to be erected at the center of a larger project that would include other surrounding buildings. The mosque was not only a place of worship, but also a learning sanctuary and meeting venue.

Today, the incomplete Hassan Tower, the vast marble floor, the left columns and the surviving walls indicate the huge dimensions of an unfinished mosque, that was intended to span over an area of 183 on 128 meters.

History experts say the building of this colossal mosque, which was not compatible with the size of Rabat, then a small town, shows the Almohade leader’s ambition to make the city his new Capital, given its strategic location between the empire’s then capital city, Marrakech, and the Iberian peninsula, where large parts were under Almohade rule.

Soaring 44 meters into the sky, the Hassan Tower is an ultimate example of the breathtaking Moroccan Almohad architecture. This rectangular edifice, which was intended to be 88-meters high, reflects the reverence, which Moroccans had for mosques since the advent of Islam. It is no a coincidence that this reverence was manifested at the end of the 20th century, when the Hassan II mosque, one of the world’s largest mosques, with the highest Minaret (210 meters), was inaugurated in 1993 in Casablanca.

Featured Tours