Introduction 

:
Hassan-II Mosque is a mosque located in Casablanca, erected partly on the sea, it’s a religious and
cultural complex, arranged on nine hectares.

It has a prayer room, ablutions room, baths, Koranic school, library, museum and also an Academy of
Traditional Arts.

History :
After the mosque of Mecca, the Hassan II mosque is the second highest religious monument of the
planet with a minaret culminating at 210 meters of altitud. It was built under the reign and the
directives of king Hassan II. Its construction began on 12 July 1986 and its inauguration took place on
30 August 1993, after seven years of work

Since the mosque is located on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, the foundations required 26,000 m3
of concrete and 60,000 m3 of rip-rap to combat wave’s effects. However, the stability of the seaward
protection structures has proved insufficient and significant work to strengthen the containment
system has been underway since October 2006.

This exceptional work, made it possible to revive Moroccan craftsmanship in all its forms but was also
at the origin of "high-performance concrete" to ensure the elevation of the minaret. Managed until
2009 by the Urban Agency of Casablanca, it currently depends on the Foundation of the Hassan-II
Mosque of Casablanca..

Architecture and Ornaments :

The design of this work was made by the architect Michel Pinseau, it was built by the French group
Bouygues and the project management was provided by the Interior Ministry Driss Basri.

It was built two-thirds on the sea. It can accommodate more than 100,000 people, it covers a total
area of 20,000 m2.

Twelve 220 t/m tower cranes and eight mobile cranes were installed for the building.

The structures of the entire mosque are made of reinforced concrete dressed in decorations from
Moroccan craftsmanship.

The entire work has mobilized about 10,000 workers and craftsmen working more than 80 million
hours.

Artisans were recruited from all cities of the kingdom had carved 53,000 m2 of wood and assembled
more than 10,000 m2 of zellige (ceramics) for the place of worship.

The plaster sculpted and painted, was entirely worked on the spot by 1500 maâlems on more than
67,000 m2. The cedar-wood domes were attached to frames made of 971t stainless steel and
suspended from the reinforced concrete structure. The marble and granite coverings of Moroccan
origin represent 50 hectares of area with an average thickness of 14 cm. The mosque is decorated
with 124 marble fountains and basins. The speakers and lights were designed with the assistance of
Philips. The mosque has a "laser beam" indicating the direction of Mecca with a range of 30
kilometres.

Prayer Room
The Prayer Room has a capacity of 25,000 people with a total area of 20,000 m2 and the esplanade
has a capacity of 80,000 people (the entire complex can accommodate 105,000 people). Its area is
two hectares, and is composed of two levels: the ground floor divided into three symmetrical naves
for men, with a capacity of 20,000 people and mezzanines for women of 3,500 m2 and a capacity of
2,500 people each.

Surmounted by a 3,400 m2 and 1,100 t mobile roof, It’s a three-dimensional metal structure covered
with carved and painted cedar wood, it opens in 5 minutes thanks to a self-propelled wheel bearing
system. When the roof is closed, the prayer room is lit by fifty chandeliers and eight Murano
Venetian appliques. The largest are six metres in diameter, ten metres in height and weigh 1,200 kg.
The roof has required 300,000 special cast aluminum tiles.

Ablutions Room
The Hassan-II mosque has an ablutions room with a surface area of 4,800 m2, the chandeliers there
are made of copper, made in Fez. It is a room decorated with zellige and tadelakt, it has forty-one
fountains illustrating a lotus flower: three fountains are large and imposing, while the remaining
thirty-eight are small with a hundred taps on the periphery.

Mosque’s Bathroom
The bathroom of the mosque is a Moorish bath decorated with zelliges, inside which is a swimming
pool one meter fifty deep, heated under a huge tadelakt vault. The room is made up of three rooms:
an almost cold or slightly warm room, a room with a moderate temperature and the last room is very
hot, the temperature can reach up to 47°C.

Koranik School
It is a hemispheric building with colonnades that includes classrooms, meeting rooms and a royal
apartment around an inner courtyard

Mosque’s Media Library

The four-storey media library offers a wide selection of books and electronic media and is equipped
with modern equipment, an ideal workspace for youth and adults , children are also entitled to a
dedicated floor with an event space where each week storytellers, animators of artistic workshops
and educators succeed each other.

On the ground floor, the media library also has a space for exhibitions, or are regularly exhibited local
and foreign artists and collectives of artists working to promote African art, local art.
Museum
This small museum tells the story of the construction of the Hassan II mosque by putting in the light
of day this ancestral heritage and craftsmanship, arranged on the ground floor on two large
corridors, it includes a collection of zellij plates, pieces of carved wood and painted wood, carved
stucco walls tracing the stages of this know-how, specimens of Arabic calligraphy, a shop of books
and souvenirs of the mosque.

The Academy of Traditional Arts

Founded in 2012, the academy of traditional arts aims to preserve Moroccan know-how in terms of
traditional art, it offers 10 specialties (painted wood, carved wood, stone cutting, stucco cutting,
zellij, Arabic calligraphy, jewellery, ironwork, weaving, leather goods)