Walk up from the medina and you push through the monumental Bab Oudaia into a quarter that has been continuously lived in for nine hundred years. The Kasbah of the Udayas was founded as a 12th-century Almohad ribat — a fortified monastery — on the cliff where the Bou Regreg meets the Atlantic, and the ramparts on three sides have barely moved since. Inside is a small residential medina, about ten hectares in total, of whitewashed houses painted waist-high in ultramarine and narrow stepped lanes that fall toward the ocean.

The visit is mostly outdoor wandering. The main lane curves past the Jama el-Atiqa mosque (founded around 1150, the oldest in Rabat, closed to non-Muslims but visible from outside), pushes toward the cliff edge, and opens onto a terrace looking across the estuary to the white walls of Salé. Halfway through, a side gate leads into the Andalusian Gardens, a terraced French-laid garden from 1915 on the grounds of a 17th-century palace built for Moulay Ismail. The small Musée des Oudayas inside the same palace charges a modest ticket when open and often closes for long renovations.

Entry to the kasbah, Bab Oudaia and the gardens is free. The whole quarter is part of the historic ensemble of Rabat inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2012, with Hassan Tower and Chellah. Late afternoon is the obvious time to come — the whitewash picks up warm tones, the blue trim deepens, and Café Maure on the cliff-top terrace is the unbeatable last stop for sunset over the river to Salé.