Mahkama of Pacha

This guide to the Mahkama of Pacha in Casablanca counts roughly two dozen rooms behind one grand courthouse facade, and traces how they came to be. It starts in 1930, when the pasha of Casablanca, At-Tayyib Al-Moqri, commissioned French architect Auguste Cadet to build a civil courthouse in the new Habous district. Wartime shortages through the 1940s pushed Cadet back to older methods, limestone, marble and cedar hauled from the Atlas mountains, with zellige tilework and carved stucco lace above the doorways.