KASBAH, RABAT, MOROCCO

The Kasbah of the Udayas is a kasbah in Rabat, Morocco. A kasbah (Arabic قصبة) is a type of medina, Islamic city, or fortress (citadel). It was a place for the local leader to live and a defence when a city was under attack. A kasbah has high walls, usually without windows. Sometimes, it was built on hilltops so that it could be more easily defended. Some were placed near the entrance to harbours.

The Kasbah of the Udayas is located at the mouth of the Bou Regreg river opposite Salé. The edifice was built in the 12th century during the reign of the Almohad Caliphate (AD 1121-1269). When the Almohads had captured Rabat and destroyed the kasbah of the Almoravid dynasty in the town, they began reconstructing it in AD 1150. They added a palace and a mosque and named it al-Mahdiyya, after their ancestor al-Mahdi Ibn Tumart. After the death of Yaqub al-Mansur (AD 1199) the kasbah was deserted.

The Almohads brought significant changes to the Rabat area, including the destruction and rebuilding of the Kasbah of the Udayas and turning Chellah into a royal necropolis. Rabat was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on July 20, 2006 in the Cultural category. It was granted World Heritage Status in 2012.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.