Etienne Delmas
Reading Casablanca street by street
Based in Centre-ville, Casablanca, Morocco.
Etienne first came to Casablanca to catalogue its Art Deco and Mauresque facades and has spent fifteen years walking the centre-ville, Habous and Anfa on foot. He writes about the city's neighbourhoods, its architecture and the day trips out to the Hassan II Mosque and the coast.
Latest stories
Derb Ghallef, Casablanca's 4,000-trader market quarter
Four thousand traders work under corrugated iron. Gabriel Loire's stained glass is 1.9 km north, and two rooftops are within a tram ride. The guide covers all of it, street by street.
Casablanca's Quartier des Hôpitaux, street by street
Gabriel Loire's 1954 glass wall, a Russian onion dome, a parakeet park from 1907 and the best cooking in the hospitals streets are all inside one walk.
Walking Casablanca Marina from Casa-Port to the mosque
The walk from Casa-Port station to the Hassan II Mosque is flat and all seafront: the medina ramparts, the marina terrace deck, an oyster bar in the fishing port.
Walking the Hassan II Mosque Waterfront in Casablanca
Tour times at the mosque, the 1770s ramparts next door, the fish tables inside the port, and where to sleep on this stretch of Atlantic seafront.
Eight Days From Casablanca Through the Imperial Cities
An eight-day route out of Casablanca built around a guided mosque tour, a Roman hillside, a cash-only granary and one night on the dunes.
Pigeons, Palms and Art Deco at Casablanca's Place Mohammed V
Casablanca's central plaza is free and has no gate: what you can walk into, what you pay for nearby, and when the fountain is worth waiting for.
Three Hours Inside Casablanca's Ancienne Medina
What there is to see inside Casablanca's walled old quarter, how long a visit takes, which gate to use, and whether a guide earns its fee.
Tracing Jewish Casablanca From the Mellah to Beth-El
A workable route through what is left of Casablanca's Jewish quarter: the museum in Oasis, two cemeteries, the synagogues that still hold services, and the phone calls that get you through the door.
Where the Atlantic Breaks Under Casablanca's Hassan II Mosque
What the guided hour inside Morocco's seaside mosque shows you, how the fixed-time slots work, and what else fits into the half-day around it.
The Hammam Hour: Casablanca's Public Bathhouses and the Ritual That Outlasted the French
From a 70-dirham workers' bathhouse in Gauthier to a concierge-booked spa in Anfa, Casablanca's hammams are the one daily ritual the city never let anyone modernise away.
Mauresque: Casablanca's Art Deco City Hiding in Plain Sight
Skip the airport transfer and walk the 1920s new town — Casablanca is one of the world's great, least-visited open-air museums of Art Deco and its Moroccan hybrid, the Mauresque.
The City That Talks Over Coffee: Casablanca's Café Culture and the Art of the Afternoon
From third-wave roasteries in Maarif to a walled garden café in the old medina, a considered guide to where Casablanca actually sits down, orders slowly, and lets the afternoon unspool.
The White City in Deco: Casablanca's Forgotten Architecture Trail
Casablanca hides one of the world's densest Art Deco quarters in plain sight — here is how to walk it, read it, eat in it, and sleep inside it.
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