Rabat is the capital of Morocco. It is located on the Atlantic coast, in the northwest of Morocco. The city has nearly 600,000 inhabitants.
The earliest traces of human presence in Rabat are found at the present-day site of the Chellah in the 8th century BC. Founded by the Phoenicians like other coastal towns of Morocco, it later fell under the control of the Carthaginians. It is not really known what role it played in the regional economy.
It was the Romans who gave the name to the city of Salé (sala colonia), which is a deformation of the Latin word Sala, the first name given to the Bou Regreg river that separates the cities of Rabat and Salé. Since June 2012, a group of sites in the city of Rabat has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a cultural property: the “new city” (built at the beginning of the French protectorate in Morocco), the kasbah des Oudayas, the jardin d’Essais, the médina, the Almohad ramparts and gates, the sites of the Chellah or the Hassan mosque (whose “Hassan Tower” is the minaret), the Mohammed V mausoleum and the habous de Diour Jamaâ quarter.
