Forever immortalised by the movie classic of the same name, Casablanca is Morocco's modern metropolis. Even though it is not one of the famous imperial cities, having grown in no time from a small settlement into a sprawling city of three million, Casablanca offers visitors an equally rare experience. Everything is bigger here: the streets, the hotels, the office blocks and the slums. The people themselves say, "Casablanca has no memory and no past, only a future." Even so, a rich heritage of art deco architecture fused with North African elements acts as a tangible reminder of its French colonial past.