Casablanca is Morocco's largest city, with a population of nearly four million inhabitants. Beyond being the financial and economic capital of the kingdom, it is also the largest city in the Maghreb. The original settlement saw the construction of the ancient city by Berbers near the town of Anfa, or perhaps even confused with this small town known since Roman times. The Portuguese destroyed the city in 1468, and it was they who rebuilt it, naming it "Casablanca"—meaning "white house"—though this now-famous name would only be popularized by the Spanish from 1781 onward. More recently, from 1907 and for nearly fifty years, the city fell under French protectorate rule. Morocco's largest port was constructed, and Western-trained architects began to embellish the city, gradually transforming Casablanca into a showcase of urban modernity.

Visitors will find themselves mesmerized by this city of two faces: traditional architecture alongside cutting-edge architectural innovation along the Atlantic coast. There is a certain fascination in experiencing this freshness—a very Western city in Africa, complete with its familiar social contrasts and unbridled construction in what has become an almost global metropolis. Nevertheless, the oceanic climate makes life in Casablanca pleasantly temperate, with temperatures rarely exceeding 30°C, a significant comfort in this multimillion-person urban center.

Casablanca is also one of the kingdom's largest commercial and fishing ports, handling nearly three-quarters of all of Morocco's trade. The city leads in university education, business, and its transport infrastructure has been greatly facilitated. Indeed, reaching Casablanca is straightforward, yet visitors are often struck by the contrast between this incredible accessibility and the bewildering maze of unnamed streets where hurried residents drive fast, living at a breakneck pace reminiscent of New York, London, or Paris. To visit Casablanca, then, is to glimpse a future world-class city, where—as always in Morocco—contrasts blend: raw, untamed beauty alongside modernity and tradition, order and chaos, all reflecting the human condition.

Casablanca is thus a highly coveted destination that merges Western and Moroccan art while opening literally toward the modern world. Visitors are captivated equally by its contemporary character and by its small, distinctly Moroccan spaces.