Casablanca, Morocco - Hassan II Mosque

The Hassan II Mosque went under construction in July of 1986 and was completed and opened to the public on August 30, 1993. King Hassan II had the mosque built as a single landmark monument in Casablanca. French architect, Michel Pinseau, designed the mosque.

The Hassan II Mosque is the largest mosque in Morocco and in Africa; furthermore, it is the 7th largest mosque in the world. The mosque measures out to be 210 meters, 630 feet, high.

Interesting facts and features include the following:

• Construction cost ranged from $400-$700 million.
• The minaret on the Hassan II Mosque is the largest one in the world. 
• The mosque can hold up to twenty five thousand people and the courtyard can hold up to eighty thousand people. 
• Cleaning the Hassan II Mosque takes two hundred workers on a daily basis.
• The minaret has two laser beams that point the way to Mecca.
• The mosque has a glass floor so that the ocean below can be viewed. 

Famous people associated with the Hassan II Mosque include the following:

• King Hassan II