Old Medina of Casablanca

The Old Medina is the historic walled quarter of Casablanca, occupying the site of the original town before the twentieth-century expansion that turned the city into a modern port. Enclosed by weathered ramparts and entered through arched gates, its tangle of narrow lanes holds small mosques, shrines, workshops and busy markets. Less monumental than the medinas of Fes or Marrakesh, it offers a grittier, lived-in atmosphere close to the harbour. The Sqala bastion and a Portuguese-era clock tower survive along its edges.