This was our last view of the mosque, after looking at it from the Atlantic Ocean side (pictured below).

I’m going to end this gallery here, and would like to say thank you for all the interest in and support for it! I’m so happy I made such a big deal about visiting it – first with the tour company, insisting they rearrange our itinerary to spend a night in Casablanca, and that they make sure with their person in Morocco that there would actually be a tour on a Friday morning (Muslim holy day); then with Rostom, our driver, who called Casablanca to confirm visiting hours and days. In the end, he made us leave Essaouira very early Thursday morning so we could make the Thursday afternoon tour of the mosque. He knew how badly I wanted to see it! I also think he didn’t want any more mishaps after Tim’s accident.

“With a prayer hall that can accommodate 25.000, the Hassan II Mosque is the second-largest religious building in the world, after the mosque in Mecca. The complex covers 9 hectares (978,774 square feet), two-thirds of it being built over the sea. The minaret, the lighthouse of Islam, is 200 m (656 feet) high, and two laser beams, reaching over a distance of 30 km (18.5 miles) shine in the direction of Mecca. The building was designed by Michel Pinseau, 35,000 craftsmen worked on it, and it opened in 1993. … [It] is a monument to Moroccan architectural virtuosity and craftsmanship.” (“Eyewitness Travel, Morocco”)

A closer view of the ocean side of the mosque, posted earlier: