Casablanca surprises almost every visitor who arrives expecting an ancient medina and finds instead a 20th-century metropolis of extraordinary architectural ambition — the largest and most coherent ensemble of Mauresque Art Deco architecture in the world, ending at a mosque partly built over the Atlantic Ocean. This casablanca walking tour by the Tawada channel moves through the city’s streets and historic districts in 4K UHD, from the French Protectorate-era civic centre through the Habous new medina to the sea wall promenade, documenting a city that cinema has made famous without making it understood.

About This Walking Tour

Tawada’s 4K city walking tour begins in the monumental civic centre that French urban planner Henri Prost designed from 1914 onwards to serve as Casablanca’s administrative heart. Place Mohammed V is the centrepiece: a generous formal square surrounded by the Palais de Justice, the Wilaya (prefecture), the Bank Al-Maghrib, and the French Consulate — all built in the Mauresque style that Prost developed specifically for Morocco, blending European architectural forms with Moorish ornamental vocabulary to produce a colonial aesthetic that is distinctively neither European nor traditionally Moroccan.

The tour moves into the Habous quarter — a “nouvelle medina” planned and built by the French in the 1930s as a model traditional Moroccan neighbourhood, which is a fascinating inversion of the usual colonial intervention in that it was built to preserve and propagate traditional urban form rather than replace it. The covered souqs, the mosque, the pâtisseries selling French-influenced Moroccan pastries, and the honey-sellers’ stalls create a quarter that feels simultaneously historical and consciously constructed.

The 4K footage gives close attention to the Art Deco building facades throughout the city’s downtown: ornate mashrabiya grilles applied to concrete balconies, Arabic calligraphic friezes running above European-style shop windows, domed towers reminiscent of minarets on buildings that function as banks and apartment blocks. This architectural hybridity is unique to Casablanca and makes a walk through its downtown a genuinely unusual urban experience. The route reaches the Old Medina — small compared to those of Fes or Marrakech, but authentic — and the Corniche promenade along the Atlantic.

Highlights of Casablanca

The Hassan II Mosque, completed in 1993, is the defining landmark of Casablanca and one of the most extraordinary religious buildings in the world. Commissioned by King Hassan II to fulfil a Quranic verse stating that God’s throne is above water, the mosque was built partly over the Atlantic Ocean — glass floors in the prayer hall allow worshippers to see the sea below. The minaret, at 210 metres, is the tallest in the world. The complex can accommodate 105,000 worshippers in total, making it one of the largest religious gathering spaces on earth. Unusually for Morocco, the mosque is open to non-Muslim visitors on guided tours during weekday mornings.

The Central Market, a covered neoclassical building from 1917 in the heart of the downtown, is the best place to observe the daily rhythm of Casablanca’s food culture — fresh Atlantic seafood, Moroccan produce, spices, and the legendary Café de France at one end where businesspeople have been taking their morning coffee for over a century.

The Habous quarter’s pâtisseries are widely considered the best in Morocco for French-Moroccan pastry, the product of a culinary tradition that emerged from the colonial period as a genuine synthesis rather than an imposition. Cornes de gazelle (crescent-shaped almond pastries dusted with icing sugar) and msemen (flaky griddle bread) here have a reputation that draws visitors from across the country.

A Brief History of Casablanca

Casablanca — in Arabic, Dar el-Beida, meaning “the White House” — was a modest Atlantic port town of perhaps 20,000 people when France established its Protectorate over Morocco in 1912. French Resident-General Hubert Lyautey made the strategic decision to develop Casablanca as Morocco’s economic and commercial capital rather than the historic capitals of Fes, Marrakech, or Rabat, recognising its Atlantic port position as the key to commercial development.

Urban planner Henri Prost developed the Mauresque architectural style in direct response to Lyautey’s directive to build a modern city that respected Moroccan cultural identity — a more sophisticated colonial urbanism than was practised elsewhere. The result, over the following decades, was the construction of a downtown unlike any other African or Middle Eastern city: European in scale and function, but distinctively Moroccan in ornament and detail.

The 1942 Hollywood film Casablanca — starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman — was filmed entirely in California; neither Bogart nor Bergman ever visited Morocco. The film nonetheless made Casablanca internationally famous and contributed to the romantic image of the city that continues to attract visitors. Today Casablanca is Morocco’s largest city with a metropolitan population of over seven million, the economic engine of the Maghreb, and a city whose architectural heritage is gradually receiving the international attention it deserves.

Practical Tips

Mohammed V International Airport is connected to Casablanca’s city centre by train in approximately 45 minutes, one of the most convenient airport-city rail connections in Africa. Trams and taxis serve the city throughout the day. The downtown walking circuit from Place Mohammed V through the Habous quarter to the Old Medina and Corniche covers approximately 5 kilometres and is manageable in a half-day.

The currency is the Moroccan dirham. Arabic and French are the official languages; French is very widely spoken in Casablanca as a legacy of the Protectorate period. March through June and September through November offer the most comfortable Atlantic weather for walking. Couscous with seven vegetables, traditionally served on Fridays, is the dish to seek out in the Habous quarter restaurants; sardine sandwiches from street carts near the Central Market represent the city’s most democratic and delicious fast food.

Watch & Explore More

Morocco has more to offer on @walkingtoursvideoscom. Our Marrakech walking tour covers Jemaa el-Fna and the souks of the ancient medina, while our Fes walking tour explores the world’s largest intact medieval city and the famous tanneries.