Rabat
(
Arabic
:
??????
,
transliterated
ar-Rab??
or
ar-Rib??
, literally "Fortified Place"), population 577,827 hab. (
2014 estimate
), is the
capital
of the
Kingdom of Morocco
. It is also the capital of the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra region.
The city is on the
Atlantic Ocean
at the mouth of the river
Bou Regreg
. On the other side of the river is Rabat's
bedroom community
. Together the two cities with
Temara
have a population of 1.8 million.
Silting
problems have lowered the city's role as a port. However, Rabat and Sale still maintain somewhat important
textile
,
food processing
and
construction
industries. Some are from sweatshop labor by major businesses.
In addition, tourism and being home to all foreign
embassies
in Morocco help to make Rabat the second most important city in the country after the larger and
economically
more significant
Casablanca
.
Rabat's history began with a
settlement
, known as
Chellah
on the banks of the
Oued Bou Regreg
[3]
in the third century BC. In 40 AD,
Romans
took over Chellah and changed it to the Roman settlement of Sala Colonia. Rome held the colony until 250 AD. They gave it up to local rulers. In 1146, the
berber
Almohad
ruler
Abd al-Mu'min
turned Rabat's
ribat
into a full scale
fortress
. It was used as a starting point for attacks on
Spain
. In 1170, due to its military importance, Rabat acquired the title
Ribatu l-Fath
, meaning "stronghold of victory," from which it gets its current name.
Yaqub al-Mansur
(known as Moulay Yacoub in Morocco), another Almohad Caliph, moved the capital of his empire to Rabat.
[4]
He built Rabat's city walls, the
Kasbah of the Udayas
and began construction on what would have been the world's largest
mosque
. However, Yaqub died and construction stopped. The ruins of the unfinished mosque, along with the
Hassan Tower
, still stand today.
Yaqub's death a period of decline at first. The Almohad empire lost control of its land in Spain and much of its African territory. Eventually this led to its total collapse. In the 13th century, much of Rabat's economic power shifted to
Fez
. In 1515 a
Moorish
explorer, El Wassan, reported that Rabat had declined so much that only 100 houses remained with people living in them. An increase of
Moriscos
, who had been removed from Spain, in the early 17th century helped boost Rabat's growth.
Rabat and neighboring Sale united to form the
Republic of Bou Regreg
in 1627. The republic was run by
Barbary pirates
who used the two cities as base ports for starting attacks on shipping. The pirates did not have to fight with any central authority until the
Alaouite Dynasty
united Morocco in 1666. They attempted to establish control over the pirates, but failed. European and Muslims authorities continued to attempt to control the pirates over many years. The Republic of Bou Regreg did not collapse until 1818. Even after the republic's collapse, pirates continued to use the port of Rabat. This led to the attack of the city by
Austria
in 1829 after an Austrian ship had been lost to a pirate attack.
The French invaded Morocco in 1912 and established a
protectorate
. The French administrator of Morocco, General
Hubert Lyautey
,
[5]
decided to move the country's capital from Fez to Rabat. Among other factors, citizens had made Fez an unstable place because of their desire to rebel. Sultan
Moulay Youssef
followed the decision of the French and moved his home to Rabat. In 1913, Gen. Lyautey hired
Henri Prost
who designed the Ville Nouvelle (Rabat's modern quarter) as an administrative sector. When Morocco became independent in 1956,
Mohammed V
, the then
King of Morocco
, chose to have the capital remain at Rabat.
After World War II, the United States created a military presence in Rabat at the former French air base. By the early 1950s, Rabat Sale Air Base was a
U.S. Air Force
based hosting the
17th Air Force
and the 5th Air Division. These divisions oversaw forward basing for
Strategic Air Command
(SAC)
B-47 Stratojet
aircraft in the country. With the destabilization of French government in Morocco, and Moroccan independence in 1956, the government of
Mohammed V
wanted the U.S. Air Force to pull out of the SAC bases in Morocco. He insisted on such action after Americans became involved in Lebanon in 1958. The United States agreed to leave as of December 1959. They were fully out of Morocco by 1963. SAC felt the Moroccan bases were much less critical with the long range capability of the
B-52 Stratofortresses
that were replacing the B-47s. It also had completed USAF bases in
Spain
in 1959.
[6]
With the USAF leaving Rabat-Sale in the 1960s, the facility became a primary facility for the
Royal Moroccan Air Force
known as Air Base Nº 1, a status it continues to hold.
Rabat Downtown
The biggest place for theatre is the Theatre Mohamed V in the centre of the town. The city also has a few official galleries and an archeological museum. Many organisations are active in cultural and social issues. Orient-Occident Foundation and ONA Foundation are the biggest of these. An independent art scene is active in the city.
L'appartement 22
, which is the first independent space for visual arts created by Abdellah Karroum, opened in 2002.
Rabat was selected as a filming location for the war film
Black Hawk Down
(2001).
Rabat will bid to host the
2020 Summer Olympic Games
.
Rabat is
twinned
with:
Rabat features a
Mediterranean climate
. Along the Atlantic Ocean, Rabat has a mild, temperate climate. It moves from cool in winter to warm days in the summer months. The nights are always cool (or colder in winter) Daytime temperatures generally always rise about +9/10 C° (+15/18 F°) every day. The winter highs usually reach only 17.5 °C (63.5 °F) in December-January (
see weather-table below
).
Climate data for Rabat
|
Month
|
Jan
|
Feb
|
Mar
|
Apr
|
May
|
Jun
|
Jul
|
Aug
|
Sep
|
Oct
|
Nov
|
Dec
|
Year
|
Record high °C (°F)
|
27
(81)
|
31
(88)
|
35
(95)
|
38
(100)
|
41
(106)
|
42
(108)
|
46
(115)
|
45
(113)
|
44
(111)
|
38
(100)
|
34
(93)
|
28
(82)
|
46
(115)
|
Average high °C (°F)
|
17.2
(63.0)
|
17.7
(63.9)
|
19.2
(66.6)
|
20.0
(68.0)
|
22.1
(71.8)
|
24.1
(75.4)
|
26.8
(80.2)
|
27.1
(80.8)
|
26.4
(79.5)
|
24.0
(75.2)
|
20.6
(69.1)
|
17.7
(63.9)
|
21.9
(71.5)
|
Daily mean °C (°F)
|
12.6
(54.7)
|
13.1
(55.6)
|
14.2
(57.6)
|
15.2
(59.4)
|
17.4
(63.3)
|
19.8
(67.6)
|
22.2
(72.0)
|
22.4
(72.3)
|
21.5
(70.7)
|
19.0
(66.2)
|
15.9
(60.6)
|
13.2
(55.8)
|
17.2
(63.0)
|
Average low °C (°F)
|
8.0
(46.4)
|
8.6
(47.5)
|
9.2
(48.6)
|
10.4
(50.7)
|
12.7
(54.9)
|
15.4
(59.7)
|
17.6
(63.7)
|
17.7
(63.9)
|
16.7
(62.1)
|
14.1
(57.4)
|
11.1
(52.0)
|
8.7
(47.7)
|
12.5
(54.6)
|
Record low °C (°F)
|
?4
(25)
|
?3
(27)
|
1
(34)
|
4
(39)
|
6
(43)
|
9
(48)
|
12
(54)
|
12
(54)
|
9
(48)
|
5
(41)
|
1
(34)
|
?2
(28)
|
?4
(25)
|
Average rainfall mm (inches)
|
77.2
(3.04)
|
74.1
(2.92)
|
60.9
(2.40)
|
62.0
(2.44)
|
25.3
(1.00)
|
6.7
(0.26)
|
0.5
(0.02)
|
1.3
(0.05)
|
5.7
(0.22)
|
43.6
(1.72)
|
96.7
(3.81)
|
100.9
(3.97)
|
554.9
(21.85)
|
Average rainy days
|
9.9
|
9.8
|
9.0
|
8.7
|
5.7
|
2.4
|
0.3
|
0.4
|
2.4
|
6.4
|
10.2
|
10.4
|
75.6
|
Mean monthly
sunshine hours
|
179.8
|
183.6
|
232.5
|
255.0
|
291.4
|
288.0
|
316.2
|
306.9
|
261.0
|
235.6
|
189.0
|
179.8
|
2,918.8
|
Source 1: HKO
[1]
|
Source 2: BBC Weather (records)
[10]
|
-
Royal Palace
-
Sale photographed from Rabat
-
-
Rabat as seen from Spot Satellite
-
Train of Morocco at Rabat station
- Notes
- ↑
1.0
1.1
"Hong Kong Observatory"
. Hong Kong Observatory. Archived from
the original
on 2012-08-17
. Retrieved
2011-11-01
.
- ↑
"Population legale d'apres les resultats du RGPH 2014 sur le Bulletin officiel N° 6354"
.
Haut-Commissariat au Plan
(in Arabic). Archived from
the original
(pdf)
on 2018-12-26
. Retrieved
2015-07-11
.
- ↑
C. Michael Hogan,
Chellah
, The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham
- ↑
History of Morocco
, Henri Terrasse, 1952
- ↑
Morocco: The Islamist Awakening and Other Challenges
2005, Marvine Howe
- ↑
John Pike.
"Sidi Slimane Air Base, Morocco - United States Nuclear Forces"
. Globalsecurity.org
. Retrieved
2009-05-06
.
- ↑
"::Bethlehem Municipality::"
. www.bethlehem-city.org. Archived from
the original
on 2010-07-24
. Retrieved
2009-10-10
.
- ↑
"Cooperation Internationale"
(in French). ⓒ 2003 City of Tunis Portal. Archived from
the original
on 2008-05-08
. Retrieved
2009-01-31
.
- ↑
"Mapa Mundi de las ciudades hermanadas"
. Ayuntamiento de Madrid.
- ↑
"Average Conditions Rabat, Morocco"
. BBC Weather. Archived from
the original
on January 7, 2011
. Retrieved
August 17,
2009
.
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Rabat
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