United Nations Square

This guide to United Nations Square in Casablanca opens with a photograph from eighteen eighty-nine showing a souk spilling out beyond the old medina's walls, long before the square had its current name. It follows the French protectorate's decision to clear that market for arcaded shops, a department store, a bank and a grand hotel, and traces the clock tower that rose in nineteen zero eight, was torn down, and was later rebuilt. You'll also hear about architect Jean-François Zevaco's underground passage and the concrete globe Casablancans still call Kora Ardia, planet earth.