Casablanca

In January 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt snuck out of the United States on a secret mission. Nobody knew where he was going.

He flew all the way to Casablanca, Morocco, making him the first president to leave the country during a war, the first to visit Africa, and the first to fly in an airplane while in office. He met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for ten days, and together they planned how to win World War II.

But Casablanca was already old news long before any of that happened. Over a thousand years ago, a group called the Berbers built a port town here called Anfa. It grew into a busy trading hub on the Atlantic coast.

By the 1400s, pirates used it as a hideout to raid European ships. Portugal got tired of the attacks and destroyed the whole town in 1468. They came back in 1515 and built a fortress on the ruins, calling it Casa Branca. That's Portuguese for "White House."

The name stuck, but the city didn't stay standing. A giant earthquake flattened it in 1755. A Moroccan sultan rebuilt it around 1770, and European traders moved in.

France took over in 1907, and Casablanca grew from a small port into Morocco's biggest city. Morocco won its independence in 1956, but the French left behind wide boulevards and a whole neighborhood called the Habous Quarter, built in the 1920s with a mix of Moroccan and European design.

The Hassan II Mosque is one of the biggest in the world and one of the few in Morocco that welcomes non-Muslim visitors. Its minaret stands 210 meters tall, about 60 stories, with a laser beam at the top pointing toward the holy city of Mecca. The roof actually slides open so people can pray under the stars.

Over 6,000 craftspeople carved its wood and laid its marble by hand. Shop for leather goods and spices in the Habous Quarter's outdoor markets. Try a chicken tajine slow-cooked with olives and lemons, or grab a sfenj, Morocco's version of a sugar-dusted donut, fresh from a street vendor.