On a Tuesday morning in April 2026, a young woman named Fatima stood on the rooftop observatory of a building that hadn’t existed when she was born — not really, not in any completed sense. For eight years, she had watched it grow from the right bank of the Bouregreg River in Salé, a 55-storey silhouette rising incrementally against the pale Atlantic sky. Now, its glass walls caught the morning light at angles that seemed almost theatrical. From where she stood, she could see the medinas of both Rabat and Salé, their ancient ramparts unchanged beneath her. The past and the future, divided only by water.
The building beneath her feet — the Mohammed VI Tower — was designed to look like a rocket on a launchpad. That was intentional. When Moroccan billionaire Othman Benjelloun first revealed the concept in 2014, he described his ambition plainly: a rocket that would carry “thousands of executive members and employees to space.” The metaphor stuck. So did the business logic that financed it. This is not just an architectural project — it is the centrepiece of Morocco’s deliberate, data-backed bid to dominate African tourism heading into a decade that includes a FIFA World Cup co-host slot and a target of 26 million annual visitors by 2030.
Africa’s New Vertical Statement
At 250 metres tall across 55 floors, the Mohammed VI Tower is now Morocco’s tallest building and Africa’s third-highest skyscraper. It was inaugurated by Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan on behalf of King Mohammed VI, built by a joint venture between Belgian construction giant BESIX — which also built Dubai’s Burj Khalifa — and Moroccan contractor TGCC, on foundations sunk 60 metres into the riverbed to withstand both seismic activity and floods. A 160-tonne tuned mass damper at its crown absorbs wind and vibration. Its south facade is clad in over 3,900 square metres of photovoltaic panels. The building has earned both LEED Gold and HQE environmental certifications.
Inside, the tower hosts a Waldorf Astoria hotel, high-end residential apartments, offices, a heritage observatory, a conference hall, and restaurants. Its interiors were designed by Belgian brand FLAMANT and French architect Pierre-Yves Rochon. Spanish architect Rafael de la Hoz, who co-designed the structure alongside Moroccan architect Hakim Benjelloun, said the tower is “not merely the tallest skyscraper in North Africa — it is a cultural, tourism and urban manifesto.”
The numbers agree. The building cost approximately $500 million, and its total built area spans 102,800 square metres, served by 36 elevators. The structure’s rocket-like silhouette is visible from 50 kilometres in every direction.
Tourism’s Rising Tide — and the Business Case for a Landmark
The tower does not stand alone. It rises from within the broader Bouregreg Valley development programme — a long-term urban project under Rabat’s rebranding as “City of Lights, Moroccan Capital of Culture.” It sits near Zaha Hadid’s Rabat Grand Theatre. It is the centrepiece of a capital that has decided, deliberately and loudly, that it is done being overlooked by global investors and travellers alike.
Morocco’s timing is sharp, and the numbers back it. In 2024, the country welcomed 17.4 million international tourists — overtaking Egypt for the first time to become Africa’s most visited nation. Revenue hit $12.4 billion, a 43% increase over pre-pandemic 2019 levels.
By 2025, arrivals climbed further to a record 19.8 million, against a government target of 18 million, with tourism revenues reaching an estimated $13.5 billion. Tourism represented 12.3% of Morocco’s GDP in 2024. The country is co-hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup with Spain and Portugal and hosted the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. The government’s roadmap targets 26 million tourists by 2030.
The tower is the infrastructure bet behind all of that. Real estate expert Yousuf Al-Idrisi noted that even during its construction phase, tourist numbers to Rabat surged. “This is not a mere technological accomplishment,” he told media. “It is a political and economic statement that Morocco is ready to lead urban development in Africa.” With a Waldorf Astoria hotel, premium office space, and luxury residences all housed in one address, the tower is designed to be simultaneously a landmark for visitors and a magnet for business capital.
Rocket Dreams and Old Stones
Not everyone in Rabat has embraced the monument. Some architects have argued that its imported glass-and-steel aesthetic sits uneasily beside the city’s UNESCO-listed medina, the historic Kasbah des Oudaias, and the ancient Bou Regreg riverfront. They warn that verticality as a symbol of progress risks erasing the character that made Rabat worth visiting in the first place.
It is a tension Morocco hasn’t fully resolved. But the tower, standing firm against the Atlantic wind, offers one kind of answer: that a country can hold its old stones and new heights in the same hand, if it chooses carefully enough.
Fatima descended in one of the tower’s 36 elevators and walked back across the bridge to Rabat. The skyline looked different now. Not better, not worse — just changed, the way mornings look different once the sun has fully risen.
