Dan and I flew to Casablanca the night before for logistic/expense reasons. We stayed the night in a hotel by the airport. We met our guide Said this morning at the airport and waited for my parents to arrive. Once we acquired them everyone piled into Said's car to start our adventure.
This grand building in front of us is a sort of abandoned church from the French occupation.
Our first stop is the Hassan II Mosque.
This mosque is the largest in Morocco and the 7th largest mosque in the world.
My token photo early on!
This thing is huge!
It's the world's tallest minaret at 210 meters.
I had to back away really far to get the entire thing in a photo. 100,000 people can pray inside the mosque and it has a large enough courtyard out front that also has space for 100,000 people praying.
The courtyard. Again, HUGE!
A fountain! Dad and Dan for scale.
HUUUUUUUUGE.
The inner courtyard? This place is massive.
It was finished in 1993, so it's a fairly young construction.
Giant doors. No people for scale, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
A fountain. There was one identical to it on the other side that was full of pigeons.
Apparently this one is not the cool hang out place.
We're inside. We took our shoes off and put them in plastic bags.
This is one of the only mosques that non-Muslims can visit in Morocco.
Everything is grand.
Geometric patterns everywhere!
The main prayer hall.
Part of the ceiling. It's all carved and painted wood.
The men pray on the ground area and the women pray up in the lofted areas.
This is the ceiling of the main prayer area. It is retractable. In the hotter months it can be retracted to let air into the mosque. It weighs 1100 tons and opens in 5 minutes.
The marble floors. The center has channels that water flows through during special ceremonies.
The main hall in the other direction.
This is the area for the Imam leads prayers.
The carved underside of the women's gallery.
More ceiling decorations.
The entrance to the ablutions area.
Geometry!
A neat chandalier.
Going down to the baths.
Ceiling!
Going down below the prayer hall.
More more ceiling patterns.
The baths. Muslims bathe before praying. You must be clean or you should not pray.
For big holy days the masses will bathe here before praying, otherwise it is not used much.
Chandelier and ceiling!
Artsy shot of the baths.
The sauna area that....I don't think actually gets used. It might just be for show.
This is a bathing (not washing) area....I think. I kind of forget what this pool was supposed to be for.
Fancy lamp!
The mosque is built on the ocean. This is a view from the courtyard area. Look! A lighthouse!
To save you scrolling through tons of geometric pattern photos, I complied them.
Before leaving Casablanca we stopped by Rick's Cafe. Turns out this has only been here since the early 2000's. The cafe from the movie was a set in a sound stage. Wah waah.
Now on to Meknes! But first, some photos along the way.
Kids catching a ride on a cement mixer.
Safety first!
Some drive-by landscapes photos.
Horse transport.
More drive-by landscape photos.
One of the ancient gates to Meknes.
We learned that there are Arabs and Berbers and Bedouins. And there are three main groups of Berbers. The Arabs are, well Arabs. Bedouins are Arab nomads. Berbers are the people of Morocco before the Arabs came and are mostly nomadic.
It's like Cinderella's carriage.
Meknes market square.
This is the Bab Al-Mansour (it's a big pretty gate in over-simplified words). It was built in the reign of Moulay Ismail, which was from 1672-1727, but not completed until after his death.
Details on the Bab (or gate).
A Roman column! It was taken from the Roman ruins of Volubilis nearby.
Another bab. I don't know any info about this one, but it's across from the Christian Jail and is just before the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail.
Habs Qara (or the Christian Jail). The prisoners, supposedly Christian slaves, were kept in underground cells. Light was let in by little vents in the ground (those nubs all on the ground). According to stories, when the Christian slaves got tired or sick while building the city walls, they were put in the jail. The black slaves were built/buried alive into the walls.
Dan at the jail. This is a better photo of the vents for the cells below.
Storks!
We next toured the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail.
A very fancily carved entrance.
There were a series of outer courtyards before getting to the mausoleum. 
The mausoleum was exquisitely decorated with carvings and mosaics and painted decorations on pretty much every surface.
The tomb of Moulay Ismail.
The central fountain.
We left the mausoleum and headed out to Fes.
But first, more storks!
A drive-by of Bassin Sahrij Swani a lake built to guarantee water for the city of Meknes in case of siege or drought.
Another drive-by photo.
And now the alley near our Riad.
We stayed in a riad that had been turned into a hotel. Traditionally a riad would be the home to an Arab family. There are no exterior facing windows, but there is a central courtyard. The purpose for this is so that the Arab women can be free from totally covering up in the home without outsiders seeing them.
One of the fun and fancy lights in our room.
Fancy canopy bed.
More of our room.
The view looking down into the central courtyard.
After our long day, we were in for a well deserved sleep.
This concludes our adventures for today.
