Built partly on the sea, it is a religious and cultural complex, built on nine hectares and includes a prayer room, a bathroom ablutions, baths, a Koranic school (madrasa), a library and a museum.
The prayer hall can accommodate 25,000 people while the esplanade may reach 80 000.
Hassan II Mosque is the fifth largest mosque in the world. Artisans recruited in all cities of the kingdom had 53,000 m2 of carved wood and assembled more than 10,000 m2 of zellige (ceramics) for the place of worship.
The minaret of the Hassan II Mosque, built in the Arab-Andalusian tradition, stands out by its height and its marble stone. It reached the 210 meters, making it the tallest minaret in the world. From the top, a laser beam, directed towards Mecca, shines up to 30 km away.
A large sunroof allows according to the wish of King Hassan II to link this building to the air, considered one of the four elements beneficial to life with earth, fire and water.
Designed by architect Michel Pinseau, it was built by the French group Bouygues. The completion of the whole work has mobilized some 10,000 workers and Moroccan craftsmen performing over 80 million hours of work.
Renewal of Moroccan traditional arts
This magnificent challenge has allowed, in particular, a revival of traditional Moroccan arts, as evidenced by sections of zellige, brighter in color and shimmering than usual, which are the exterior façade of the minaret, or the cedar and beech dome so finely carved and decorated with the opening roof of the prayer hall.
Impressive for the richness of its decorations, the Hassan II Mosque is also the nobility of siding materials chosen to defy time: monumental gates titanium and bronze, sculpted facades with travertine mosaic inlay in the palm of patterns to accentuate the relief, pavings of marble and granite.
Colors: ocher
Inside the mosque, the effect of light reflected by the colors of the marble and the effect of wood in doors, walls of separation and worked beautifully worked roof gives a sensation to be in a huge ocher and bright space.
