Sale
The Corsair City Across The River From Rabat, Whose Fourteenth Century Merinid Madrasa Is Among The Finest In Morocco And Whose Medina Is Still A Working Town Rather Than A Visitor Quarter · Sale, Rabat-Sale-Kenitra
Sale sits across the Bou Regreg from Rabat and gets perhaps a tenth of its visitors, which is the whole reason to cross. For forty years in the seventeenth century this was effectively its own country, the corsair republic whose Sale Rovers raided as far as Iceland and Cornwall and ransomed European captives by the thousand. The city they built is still here and still ordinary: a walled medina of workshops and food streets where almost nothing is aimed at tourists, a monumental gate built wide enough for ships to be towed into the town, and the Merinid madrasa of 1341, a small jewel of carved cedar, stucco and zellij whose rooftop gives the best view of Rabat there is. Beside it the shrine of Sidi Abdallah ben Hassoun draws pilgrims as the patron of travellers, and once a year a procession of enormous decorated wax lanterns is carried through the streets. Cross by rowing boat for a few dirhams, or by tram in ten minutes.
Medina on the north bank of the Bou Regreg, reached by rowing boat or tram from Rabat, Sale, Rabat-Sale-Kenitra, Morocco
The medina and its souks work a daily cycle, busiest in the morning and again in the early evening, with Friday midday quiet for prayers. The Merinid madrasa keeps daylight visiting hours with a small admission and a caretaker; it closes earlier in winter and occasionally for repairs, so confirm if it is the reason you are crossing. The Sidi Abdallah ben Hassoun shrine is a working religious site and its interior is not open to non-Muslims, though the courtyard area and the surrounding streets are. The wax lantern procession falls on the eve of the Prophet's birthday and moves through the year with the Islamic calendar - check the date. Rowing boats cross the river through daylight hours for a few dirhams, and Rabat-Sale tram line 2 runs late into the evening.