3 Best Sights in Rabat and Casablanca, Morocco

Currently an art gallery, this city gate was built by Yaqoub al Mansour in 1197. To see it, go outside the city walls and look to the right of the modern arches. Originally a fortification, the gate has an elaborately decorated arch topped by two carved shells. The entrance leads into a room with no gate behind it; you have to turn left into another room and then right into a third room to see the door that once led into Rabat.

A heavily fortified town for centuries, Salé still has many traces of its eventful history preserved within the old medina walls. Many landmarks in the area have been named as national heritage sites or monuments. Borj Bab Sebta is an 11th-century, square-shape fortress situated at the Sebta gate into the old medina. Borj Adoumoue, also called the Old Sqala, is an 18th-century bastion, where cannons gaze over the waters to this day. Nearby is Borj Roukni, also called Borj Kbira, or the large fortress, a semicircular, 19th-century edifice built to counter attacks by the French. There’s also a fantastic kasbah (although in need of preservation) known as the Gnawa Kasbah, built by Moulay Ismail in the 1700s. This lies near the beach 3km north of the medina and is now home to the National Circus School Shems'y.

The Borj Adoumoue, which means "fortress of tears," was a Pirates' Prison in the city walls of Salé and is now a museum. It was built by the Salé Rover pirates as their headquarters. Cannons pierce the walls and there are underground dungeons.