Locat­ed on the Atlantic coast in the north-west of Moroc­co, the site is the prod­uct of a fer­tile exchange between the Arabo-Mus­lim past and West­ern mod­ernism. The inscribed city encom­pass­es the new town con­ceived and built under the French Pro­tec­torate from 1912 to the 1930s, includ­ing roy­al and admin­is­tra­tive areas, res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial devel­op­ments and the Jardins d‘Essais botan­i­cal and plea­sure gar­dens. It also encom­pass­es old­er parts of the city dat­ing back to the 12thcentury. The new town is one of the largest and most ambi­tious mod­ern urban projects built in Africa in the 20th cen­tu­ry and prob­a­bly the most com­plete. The old­er parts include Has­san Mosque (begun in 1184) and the Almo­had ram­parts and gates, the only sur­viv­ing parts of the project for a great cap­i­tal city of the Almo­had caliphate as well as remains from the Moor­ish, or Andalu­sian, prin­ci­pal­i­ty of the 17thcentury.