Rabat Modern: The Ville Nouvelle French Architecture, the Avenue Mohammed V Boulevard, the Art Deco Heritage, the Modern Capital Planning, and the Contemporary Rabat Character
The Rabat modern city route covers the Ville Nouvelle as the most completely preserved single French Protectorate urban plan in Morocco, the Avenue Mohammed V as the most ceremonial single Moroccan boulevard, the Art Deco civic architecture, the modern capital planning, and the contemporary Rabat character as a 21st century African capital.
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Ville Nouvelle: The French Protectorate Urban Legacy
The Rabat Ville Nouvelle (New City), designed by the French resident-general Hubert Lyautey and the urban planner Henri Prost after 1912, is the most completely preserved single French Protectorate urban plan in Morocco with the wide gridded boulevards, the neoclassical and the Art Deco civic buildings, the residential quartiers designed to the most generous single European colonial housing standard in the Maghreb, and the dual city planning principle (the old medina preserved intact while the new city is built adjacent) that Lyautey pioneered as the most respectful single colonial urban planning philosophy in Africa. The Rabat Ville Nouvelle is a UNESCO component of the Outstanding Universal Value that earned the Rabat UNESCO World Heritage inscription in 2012.
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Avenue Mohammed V: The Capital Ceremonial Boulevard
The Avenue Mohammed V, the most ceremonially significant single Moroccan boulevard running from the Bab er-Rouah Almohad gate to the medina through the French Protectorate government building zone, is lined by the most complete single ensemble of French Protectorate civic architecture in Morocco with the Bank Al-Maghrib, the Bank du Maroc, the Hotel Balima (where the 1944 Istiqlal Independence Manifesto was signed at the most politically charged single hotel in Moroccan history), the parliament building, and the Art Deco residential towers. The Avenue Mohammed V evening promenade is the most politically significant single public space in Morocco.
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Art Deco Rabat: The Protectorate Civic Buildings
The Rabat Art Deco civic architecture of the 1920s-1940s, the most concentrated single Art Deco heritage in Morocco with the Post Office (1926, the most exuberantly Art Deco single public building in Rabat), the Hotel Balima (1932), the Gare Rabat-Ville (1938, the most architecturally unified single Moroccan train station), and the municipal market buildings, represents the most complete single expression of the French Protectorate high style in Morocco. The Rabat Art Deco buildings are the most underappreciated single Art Deco architecture heritage in Africa and the ensemble most comparable to the Casablanca Art Deco heritage at the smaller city scale.
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Modern Rabat Tramway: The Green Capital Transport
The Rabat-Sale tramway (inaugurated 2011, the most modern single Moroccan public transport system), running from the Sale new town across the Bou Regreg River through the Rabat city center to the Hassan district, is the most symbolically progressive single Moroccan infrastructure investment of the Mohammed VI reign and the most efficiently managed single Moroccan urban transport system. The tramway represents the most direct single indicator of the Rabat ambition to be the most environmentally progressive single Moroccan city and the capital most committed to the sustainable urban mobility model.
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Bou Regreg: The River Between Two Cities
The Bou Regreg river that divides Rabat (on the south bank) from Sale (on the north bank) is the most historically charged single Moroccan river with the Rabat-Sale twin city relationship representing the most interesting single case of the coexisting rival Moroccan cities: Rabat the capital and Sale the most conservative single traditional medina in Morocco, connected by the tramway bridge and the boat ferry and the most visually contrasted single river view in Morocco. The Bou Regreg riverside development (the new marina, the tramway bridge, the Bab Al Bahr cultural center) is the most ambitious single waterfront regeneration project in contemporary Morocco.
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Sale: The Conservative Twin City
Sale medina, on the north bank of the Bou Regreg opposite Rabat, is the most completely preserved single medieval Moroccan medina in the Rabat-Sale metropolitan area and the city most associated with the Sallee Rovers (the most feared single Barbary corsair base from 1619 to 1816 that raided as far as Iceland and the English Channel and enslaved the most European coastal population of any single North African pirate port). The Sale Grand Mosque (1333, the most important single Marinid mosque outside Fes) and the Medersa Abu al-Hassan (1341, the most elaborately carved single Marinid stucco in the Sale medina) are the most educationally significant single buildings in Sale.