CASABLANCA, MOROCCO: A CITY OF CONTRASTS | Morocco’s RAWEST City 🇲🇦

i've come to casablanca a port city on the western atlantic coastline of morocco and the country's biggest metropolis [Music] many visitors to morocco skip casablanca and head straight to the tourist hotspots of marrakech and fez but i've come here to seek out authentic moroccan life casablanca has a rich colonial legacy as it was occupied by the french for nearly 50 years in the 1900s it's a city of contrasts both traditional and modern moroccan and european and it's this unique mixture that has led me here [Music] the city has an old medina which dates to the 1500s several hundred years before the french arrived and it's one of the oldest neighborhoods in casablanca [Music] i'm meeting up with a local mohammed and we're visiting the medina a few hours before the breaking of fast as it's currently the month of ramadan and locals fast during daylight hours [Music] so we are going to go into the old medina now [Music] sounds very french petite so you can really see the french influence right so muhammad's just telling me like behind me for example typical loads of bread being sold right now because a couple of hours before everyone's going to break their fast and telling me that you know you could never ever eat a traditional moroccan meal breaking fast without bread it's the most important thing it's like the rush to get food before they break the farm so loads of people queuing up for food everyone's very hungry [Music] this is amazing i feel like this is like real local life completely surrounded by locals everyone's going about their day so much bread unbelievable all the vegetables wow [Music] is [Music] just going down the street it's so busy there are so many people muhammad's telling me that everyone loves making tagines as well so like you can see like amazing the fresh look at the fresh meat all hanging so muhammad's telling me that actually a lot of the meat on offer is turkey because you know we're in the old quarter and it's actually cheaper than labs so you can see that people try to make tajin with turkey and that works out cheaper [Music] this is chicken so it's a bit cheaper than the turkey but you know for ramadan people want something special you have like maybe the wealthier people that will go for the lamb and the beef and then you know maybe some other people that want to be a bit more economical we'll choose you know turkey and then chickens as well [Music] [Music] delicious making fresh orange juice the most eaten fish in casablanca is sardis but so many sardines are very cheap nutritious and you've got the pork right here so it's a huge fishing industry and it's mainly sardines so you can see how many sardines there are it's amazing [Music] [Music] walking through the fish market now so it smells very fishy got amazing fish wow so much all sorts of white fish wow [Music] he's showing me the sheep's head and like they eat sheep hair they eat the cows feed they're used to eating like all parts of the animal so this stall is selling horse meat and mohammed to tell me they do also actually eat horse meat i mean it's not that popular but you know you can see people are buying it and you know people cook with it is [Music] now that we're walking through the market you can feel like it's getting a lot less busy so have this huge rush everyone buying food ready to break the fast and now like it's really clearing out and it's like a lot calmer smells really good fresh sardines so good the old medina isn't just limited to souks and food stores it's also got many winding narrow alleyways where locals live so it's an incredible place to see the traditional local way of life which hasn't changed all that much from several hundred years ago the narrow alleyways crumbling buildings and loud atmosphere are very representative of local life in the old medina [Music] a lot of the apartments are occupied by whole families so you could have three or even four generations living under one roof it's chaotic and authentic and a very worthy place to explore it's a real glance into casablanca's original character the graffiti present all over this part of the neighborhood are tags of one of casablanca's major football teams widad and shows that in casablanca and morocco football is a huge part of the popular culture mohammed explained that football allows people to express themselves with many youngsters choosing to be in a football club supporter team instead of a political party in morocco football is more than just a game for the masses people live and breathe football and it forms a big part of moroccan identity just walking around this old medina in the old town and you can just see some really stunning architecture it's like 1930s and it's called mauresque so that's like very much like a mixture of french european influence and then moroccan as well so it's very unique and incredibly beautiful just to walk around and you look up and you've got these beautiful balconies and the mosaics and it's really nice to just walk around and admire it this is one of the plazas in the old um medina which is called plus belgique so the belgian square and you can see some really beautiful examples of the art deco architecture here so you've got these beautiful motifs on the on the walls balconies which look outwards towards streets which you wouldn't have so right opposite the art deco apartments you have islamic apartments and obviously they don't have the balconies that look out towards the street because very conservative you know religion it's a really great contrast of you know the different buildings that you'll come across when you just walk around in the old town [Music] outside the old medina towards the coast you can see the changing face of casablanca with grimy overpopulated areas giving way to gated mansions and beverly hills style streets driving around casablanca it's clear that this is a city of contrasts where historic districts exist alongside a modern and cosmopolitan coastline [Music] [Music] [Music] hafon the second mosque was built for the former king's 60th birthday and its location overlooking the ocean waves echoes a verse from the quran which states that god's throne was built upon the water this mosque is absolutely stunning there is just so much beautiful detailing and you know a lot of moroccan artisans worked on it the fact that they decided to build you know such an ornate grand monument in casablanca really goes to show that you know the king wanted to put casablanca on the map and kind of it's like the future of morocco so the design of this mosque is also very unique because it blends traditional islamic architecture things like the domes and the arches which is very typical of islamic style buildings with more moroccan designs so when you see these colourful tiles it's called zelich here in morocco and it's very reflective of that moroccan design you've got a lot of artisans that have always worked in the tile mosaic industry so the blend of the two gives rise to a very unique style mask and it's very moorish influences so it's very kind of unique and emblematic building here in casablanca [Music] i've come to marshay central which is a central marketplace they have a lot of fresh fish here and you can buy the fresh fish and take it to one of the little restaurants here in the market and have them cook it for you so i want to try out the fish in casablanca it's a port city there's lots of fresh fish on offer wow so this is all the fish hello hi wow there's a lot of fish on offer all from morocco so you got shrimp a bit of shrimp some calamar good yeah great what else is good to try i've got calamar got shrimp um maybe some sardines a few sardines as well they're fresh from morocco which white fish is from morocco wow san pedro [Music] thank you you're welcome thank you very much [Music] [Music] do some translating on the phone because i don't speak very good french so she's kind of translating on the phone for me uh yes with garlic and alaba [Music] my gosh oh beautiful thank you shukran that looks incredible they call it the sao pedro st pierre again it's fresh from casablanca they've got a little bit of condiment like it smells quite spicy so i'm just gonna add a bit of that to it as well [Music] wow [Music] so fresh one of the good things about coming here is that you can try all this delicious seafood and it's so cheap literally 15 euros for loads of prawns loads of calamari huge white fish sardines wow we've got sardines coming as well wow so now they've brought the sardines look at these sardines unbelievable sardines is one of the most common fishes that they eat here there's so many sardines that was an absolutely incredible lunch the fish in casablanca is so fresh so tasty and this whole you know this little market is very cute there's a lot of restaurants that you can you know take the fresh fish and have them cook it for you but most of them are shot at the moment because it's ramadan so during that this month a lot of them closed but i'm lucky to have found one and that was really good [Music] [Applause] casablanca's downtown area is filled with stunning architectural monuments built during the french occupation in the 1900s i'm at the central square which is called the place mohammed v square and this is where when the french were ruling in casablanca this was a central square and you can see some amazing art deco style buildings so you had the french headquarters like the government was here you've got the post office which is a very old building 1920s amazing square loads of pigeons they also call it pigeon square because there are hundreds of pigeons as well and one of these buildings has an amazing clock tower and you can see the art deco design [Music] [Applause] there are so many beautiful buildings all around this area which was you know the french quarter and a lot of the french architects were called over here by the governor the french governor at the time general laiuti and he really wanted to make casablanca this beautiful kind of place with the european style art deco architecture and you know for the french it was going to be like the economic capital of morocco so they very much wanted to experiment with the architectural style so just walking around this whole you know central square and the roads around it there's just so many gorgeous buildings [Music] [Music] [Music] so i'm in the habuzz quarter and i'm about to go into the habus medina which is also called the nubel medina or the new medina so this area was built by the french in 1916 and it was built because the old medina which i went to yesterday had gotten really overcrowded very overpopulated so the french decided to build a new medina modeled off the kind of islamic architecture so that the moroccans that were coming over from different parts of casablanca could come here and they'd have somewhere to live a lot of moroccans from all over morocco came to casablanca during the time that the french were here because there was a big economic boom there was a lot of work in different industries and the ports textile industries so nowadays this area here is very much a middle class upper class neighborhood so it's a real kind of contrast between you know the old medina that i visited in the new medina it's kind of a very different atmosphere a very different vibe just walking around here i can see that there's a lot of islamic style architecture so you'll see the arches are a very typical islamic characteristic and even though the french built the habus quarter they still wanted to honour that typical islamic architecture [Music] so you can see the incredible designs here of the homes in the habuzz quarter you've got this um carving it's all handmade by moroccan artisans so you've got this carving which is called stuko here in morocco and you've got the mosaics which is called the zelige tile work and you've just got them all up the street it's absolutely beautiful just walking around here and seeing this very unique style of architecture so when you go down these little streets you can often find very old workshops you have artisans that had their workshops for so many years and they're still working here so i've just come across one of the artisans that repairs teapots and it's just a really little workshop but it's very cute very quaint again like coming across these beautiful doors and you know this is more than a century old so you can just see the intricate carving and the detail that's gone into it just walking around here it's absolutely incredible to see this it's kind of in ruins and crumbling but i feel like it gives it a very faded glamour one of the things i've noticed walking through all these arches is that typically in islamic architecture you have the arch and then on top of the arch you'll always have a room so you'll see like there's a window and that's meant to be like the most beautiful room of the house and you know it's a characteristic that you'll find anytime you're going through these islamic type arches [Music] that smell that i can smell is the famous pastry shop on this road which is called bernice it's got a lot of rich history and heritage famous all over the world even the new york times wrote an article about it and they have all the typical arabic sweet so i'm going to go and buy a box of like assorted sweets and try them because the smell you can smell it from all the way up the road oh wow i would definitely get some [Music] [Music] so good reminds me of when i was a child delicious really delicious we've got a whole box of many many different suites [Music] [Music] casablanca is a city of contrast the mix of modernity and traditions which is ever present in the culture and social fabric of this sprawling metropolis is what makes it so unique what is certain is that this moroccan city has a lot to offer it's rich in history full of authentic neighborhoods its people are down to earth and friendly and in the middle of the seeming contradictions is a city fighting to lead morocco into a prosperous future [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Malini Angelica

Views: 1,098,970

Keywords: #casablanca, #morocco, #casablancamorocco, #traveldocumentary, #travelvlog

Id: a_QMLisjQsY

Length: 20min 58sec (1258 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 19 2022