Rabat, the City of Lights

By Ariana Lourie

We started our day off by getting up bright and early to make the trek from Marrakesh to Rabat. This trip took about 4.5 hours. Many of us took the time to catch up on sleep, work, and to just relax and decompress.

Our lunch was on our own but many of us chose to get Turkish and Syrian food. I chose to get shwarma and knafa. Shwarma is a traditional Arab dish that involves slowly roasting meat and then carving it off into a wrap; I had mine with chicken. Knafa is a middle eastern dessert that is made of spun pastry, simple syrup, and cheese.

After lunch, we had gone to see one of the twenty-five royal palaces in Morocco for the monarchy. Next to the palace resides military compound housing. This is so the military is always able to watch over the palace, especially if that is where the king is. We also learned that the plaza at the palace is used for a ritual sacrifice of a ram. Fun fact: they call their Ministry of Defense the pentagon.

We followed the tour then to the Unfinished Mosque. The mosque was originally commissioned and started by the founder of Rabat – Jacob the Victorious. The intention was to make it the biggest mosque in the world at the time. Unfortunately, the mosque was never finished because Jacob disappeared after 4 years never to be seen again. The Kingdom of Morocco will not complete the mosque for two reasons: 1) non-Muslims would not be able to visit it, and 2) it would no longer be authentic to its history should it be finished.

We finished our day of coursework meeting with Mimouna, a Muslim student-group that is working to preserve the Moroccan Jewish culture and heritage. It was enlightening to hear from Abdul about the efforts they are making to re-introduce the Jewish people and their culture to the Muslim communities. He spoke about their work regarding Holocaust education and bringing back the cultural ties of Moroccan Jewry.

For dinner we decided to get some paninis after walking through the medina and along the beach. It was a beautiful end to the day.