Bab er-Rouah

Bab er-Rouah (also spelled Bab er-Ruwah or Bab Rouah) is a monumental gate in the Almohad-era ramparts of Rabat, Morocco. It was built by the Almohad caliph Ya'qub al-Mansur in the late 12th century, as part of the monumental capital he started building here. The gate and its adjoining ramparts were finished by 1197.[1][2]

The outer facade of the gate.
The inner facade of the gate (facing the city).

The gate is notable for its defensive structure as well as for its rich stone-carved decoration which is comparable to other monumental Almohad gates such as Bab Oudaia to the north (also in Rabat) and to Bab Agnaou in Marrakesh.[3][4] The gate's exterior entrance is flanked by two bastion towers. The archway of the entrance was partially filled-in with a smaller arch under the Alaouite sultan Muhammad ibn Abdallah in the second half of the 18th century.[1] The gate's interior passage passes through four chambers and turns 90 degrees four times, constituting a complex bent entrance typical of Almohad military architecture.[5]

Today the gate's interior has been converted into an art gallery. It was recently renovated in 2000–2001.[2]

References
  1. Touri, Abdelaziz; Benaboud, Mhammad; Boujibar El-Khatib, Naïma; Lakhdar, Kamal; Mezzine, Mohamed (2010). Le Maroc andalou : à la découverte d'un art de vivre (2 ed.). Ministère des Affaires Culturelles du Royaume du Maroc & Museum With No Frontiers. ISBN 978-3902782311.
  2. "Bab Rouah". Archnet. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  3. Salmon, Xavier (2018). Maroc Almoravide et Almohade: Architecture et décors au temps des conquérants, 1055-1269. Paris: LienArt.
  4. Bennison, Amira K. (2016). The Almoravid and Almohad Empires. Edinburgh University Press.
  5. Marçais, Georges (1954). L'architecture musulmane d'Occident. Paris: Arts et métiers graphiques.


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