Rabat compresses 2,000 years into a walkable capital: a Roman port beneath a Merinid necropolis, the unfinished Almohad minaret of Yaqub al-Mansur, and a medina laid out by Andalusian exiles who ran a pirate republic from the Bou Regreg.
Roman Sala Colonia's forum, decumanus maximus and triumphal arch lie beside the Merinid necropolis Abu al-Hasan walled in 1339. His zellij-clad tomb and minaret sit among storks. Open 09:00–18:00 daily.
The 1197 Almohad ceremonial gate of Yaqub al-Mansur, a bent-entrance defensive passage under carved shell-and-palmette medallions in ochre stone. Now a state exhibition hall; the exterior stonework is the point.
Morocco's archaeological collection: the bronze Ephebe and Guard Dog from Volubilis, the Head of Juba II, and Neolithic material from Skhirat. Closed Tuesdays; open roughly 10:00–18:00 otherwise.
The 17th-century bastion above the river mouth where Salé Rovers' cannon covered the sandbar. Below, the white marine cemetery slopes to the Atlantic — burial ground of the corsair republic's captains and pilots.
The Alaouite palace complex begun in 1864 around a vast mechouar parade ground, with Ahl Fas mosque and the Royal Guard in white and red. The public may cross the mechouar; the palace itself stays closed.
Lyautey's 1912 protectorate capital: Henri Prost's boulevard, the Bank al-Maghrib, Parliament, the Art Deco post office and Saint-Pierre Cathedral's twin towers of 1921 — Mauresque style grafted onto French planning.
Opened 2014 in a mashrabiya-screened building; the permanent hall traces Moroccan painting from Protectorate-era orientalists to Gharbaoui and Cherkaoui's post-1956 independence generation. Closed Tuesdays.
The 1923 protectorate railway station, rebuilt for the 2018 Al Boraq high-speed line — Africa's first. The square outside was where crowds gathered for Mohammed V's return from exile in November 1955.
Rabat's mellah was laid out in 1808 when Moulay Slimane moved the Jewish community from the medina. Narrow lanes near Rue Ouakassa still carry the old workshops, with the Talmud Torah synagogue on Rue Moulay Ismail.
Cross the Bou Regreg to the older half of the corsair republic. Bab Mrisa's 1270 Merinid arch was built tall enough for masted ships to sail through a canal into the city — the only marine gate of its kind.
A 1341 Merinid college of carved cedar, stucco and zellij around a marble courtyard, with student cells upstairs. The rooftop looks over the Great Mosque of Salé and the estuary the Rovers once controlled.
The garden was laid out by the French in 1915 inside Almohad walls; the adjoining palace was built by Moulay Ismail in the 1690s as a royal residence and now holds Rabati carpets, jewellery and manuscripts.