The not very new and the not very old: Casablanca

This is the best photo that I managed to take today, through the double-glazed window of a second-floor hotel room.  I suppose I could have wandered out in search of Rick's Café.  But without a map or any idea of the local population's ability to converse in French this would not have been a good idea - especially as midnight was not very far away and exhaustion was setting in!

The tower in the photo may be part of the wall surrounding the Medina, it may be the minaret of a mosque inside the Medina, or neither.  (As the photo appears to show a high wall in front of the tower, my best guess is that it is a minaret.)

Medina, the Arabic word for "town", is now used to refer to a (pre-20th century) walled town.  Here in Casablanca the Medina is largely 19th century.  But other towns are older: Fez has two Medinas, the newer of them being seven centuries old.

Some towns have a "Ville Nouvelle" (French for "new town"); these were constructed by the French between the Wars to convince the Moroccans of the supremacy of European culture and architecture.

I don't think that our hotel is part of Casablanca's Ville Nouvelle, since the immediate neighbourhood's architecture is late 20th century.

There is a lot to learn about this country!