Diour Jamaa is a district of Rabat, the capital, built in the early twentieth century under the French Protectorate as a planned neighbourhood for Moroccans, and its character is calm and well proportioned. Houses stand in low blocks around small squares and gardens, with arched doorways, tiled courtyards and a feeling of order that sets it apart from the crowded old medina. It is one of the places that led UNESCO to inscribe Rabat as a modern capital and historic city in 2012.
The concept of the habous, or waqf, runs through it. Habous land is property held in charitable trust for religious and public purposes, and the colonial planners used such land to build quarters in a Moroccan style, with local craftsmen and materials. The result blends traditional forms, arcades and decorated gates, with modern services such as water, drainage and wide streets. Visitors find it a pleasant place to walk, with shops selling sweets, pastries, copper and leather.
Rabat itself is far calmer than Casablanca or Fez. The Oudayas Kasbah above the river mouth, with its blue-and-white lanes and Andalusian garden, the unfinished Hassan Tower from the twelfth century and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, with white marble and green roof tiles guarded by horsemen in red, are the main sights. Salé, across the river, has a long corsair history. The Bou Regreg river flows between the two cities and its estuary is wide and silvery.
The riding here is straightforward for a capital, with tidy avenues, tram lines and traffic police in white gloves. Watch for the tram tracks when wet, and for taxis changing lanes without warning. Fuel is easy, and cafes serve excellent coffee, pastries and orange juice. In spring the jacaranda trees along the avenues bloom purple. A walk through the quarter early in the morning, before the shops open, shows it at its calmest.