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It's Friday night in Marrakesh, and Djemaa el-Fna Square is a panoply of batik-bloused, henna-tagged young American backpackers, boisterous street hawkers, spice sellers, open-air eating pavilions, medicine men and atavistic tale-tellers, all jostling for my attention and particularly my money. Marrakesh is everything I'd ever heard it was: a pink-tinted Berber paradise, a model display of the Arab ethos.

The scene is postcard perfect -- too perfect, in fact. The locals come across as too nice, the streets overly sanitized. It's Disneyland in the desert, Las Vegas without the neon and chintz. And I can't wait to get back to Casablanca.

Marrakesh has the imaginative hotels, the bustling souks and the artisanal goods, but Casablanca has the seaside, the nightlife and the cosmopolitan crowd. Marrakesh is set in its ways and unlikely to alter its lambent lifestyle anytime soon, while Casablanca is bathed in the kinetic buzz of a metropolis in motion. If Marrakesh is slightly overdeveloped, then Casablanca is chockful of potential.

With Marrakesh, Fez and Tangier so close at hand, Casablanca often gets a bad rap -- its size and urban tapestry make it difficult to navigate on foot, the traffic along its sweeping boulevards is frantic and its best restaurants are hidden in residential districts or isolated enclaves reachable only via pockmarked dirt roads. And whereas Marrakesh's ebullience is the result of a well-oiled tourism industry, Casablanca is strictly business. Its most exciting habous, or craftsmens' quarter, is a faux medina located on the city's periphery, accessible only by car or petit taxi.

Like the denizens of other African metropolises, most Casablancans prefer Western ready-to-wear staples such as Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss to the traditional Moroccan clothing that has become so modish in the West, and they would rather do their shopping in grocery stores and large malls than in souks. Nor will you find the myriad of haggling street hawkers and spice vendors here that are staples in Marrakesh and Fez.

In Casablanca, they have better things to do, such as dancing to hip-hop, driving their Citroens along the seaside or quaffing cocktails to lounge music at venues such as Le Petit Rocher, which overlooks the omniscient Hassan II mosque, the world's second-largest mosque and a Casablanca landmark.

Despite the fact that the city does at times seem infinitely more Marseilles than Marrakesh, and contrary to the illusions propagated by Hollywood cinema -- that Academy Award-winning movie in particular -- Casablanca is not Africa's answer to Cannes.

The French idealists, engineers and architects who created modern Casablanca in the 1920s and 1930s wanted to erect a city that would flaunt the imperialists' architectural prowess.

Under the French Protectorate, the dubiously coined period of French rule in Morocco from 1912 to 1956, Casablanca grew from a seaside village of 9,000 in 1880 to a thriving port city of 110,000 by 1921. Today, Casablanca has more than four million inhabitants and is the country's economic capital with more than 70 per cent of its banks. Much like Los Angeles, with which it shares a similar climate and latitude, it is a sprawling metropolis of low-rise buildings and suburbs that fade into the distance under a dense veil of smog.

The elite neighbourhoods of d'Anfa and Ain Diab are home to Saudi princes, wealthy industrialists and heads of state who sat out the last half-century of repression behind large gates covered in tropical vegetation.

When the French pulled out of Morocco in 1956, it left behind a vacuum of state-sponsored corruption and violence, mobsters, Arab nationalists and a centralized police force that didn't shy away from torture. Hundreds of thousands of Europeans packed their bags and returned home, taking with them their investments.

Today, the city is in the midst of a renaissance. Local government, led by the ambitious Governor of Greater Casablanca, Driss Benhima, is looking to shed the image of colonial victim. "We have to fight the tendency to think of ourselves as a product of Western colonialism," the governor says.

At the same time, associations such as Casamemoire are fighting, with some success, to preserve the city's architecture heritage. "Casablanca needs first and foremost a cultural identity," Benhima says. "Historically, Casablanca is the point where the West came to Morocco and conquered this country, and the point where Moroccans rebelled against European power. This is the birthplace of Moroccan nationalism -- the harshest battles took place in our streets. So we can either consider the city as the location of historical defeat or a place of independence. I'm opting for the latter."

Casablanca is already benefiting from Morocco's status as one of the West's preferred Arab nations. The country's economic and diplomatic relations with the West, its proximity to Europe and the constitutional monarchy's long arm has kept Arab nationalism and violent religious fundamentalists in check. Once a launching pad for the U.S. defence of Northern Africa and the site of the Churchill and Roosevelt Casablanca Conference, the city's politically antiseptic climate is now attracting Hollywood production companies. After all, when filmed from the right angle, Casablanca can bear an uncanny likeness to less hospitable Muslim cities such as Beirut (as seen in Spy Game) and Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down). While these films don't highlight Casablanca per se, they do put much-needed cash into city coffers.

Benhima is a man with ambition. Upon appointment as governor, he immediately asked the city's tourism board to draw up a plan for rejuvenating the city. "But their vision contradicted my vision," he says. "They want to go step by step; I want more radical change."

Benhima wants to develop Casablanca's coastline into the type of Mediterranean resort it was always meant to be. While this doesn't necessarily mean bringing back the wooden huts, casinos and open-air attractions of the prewar period, it does mean replacing the dour two-star motels with more hospitable hotels.

The governor also wants to clean up the city's medina and transform it into a tourist centre of the Marrakesh variety. The first steps were already taken a few months back when the city opened La Squala, a quintessentially Moroccan restaurant that displays a certain Moroccan cliché that will appeal greatly to tourists.

But there are many obstacles standing in Benhima's way. Creating a more congenial harbour with the requisite cafés and boulevards requires major investors, who have yet to present themselves. Moreover, revamping the medina into a tourist centre with riads and restaurants would mean displacing tens of thousands of people to suburban homes on the outskirts of the city.

In the meantime, those planning to stop off in Casablanca on their way to Marrakesh will have to do their research. Like Los Angeles, it's an enticing city for those in the know. Few of its sights and attractions -- such as the billion-dollar Hassan II mosque, shopping in the Maarif, visiting the seamstresses in the Bourgogne district or a stroll along Roches Noires beach -- are self-evident. Unlike Marrakesh, there are no tourist trails to follow, and the lively bars, chic venues and nightclubs are scattered throughout town.

But ask a local if they'd like to move to Marrakech and they'll ponder aloud, "But why?" This is because, of the two cities, Casablanca is infinitely more exciting.
If you go

GETTING THERE
Virtually all flights to Morocco fly via Casablanca's Mohammed V International Airport. The easiest way to the city centre is by grands taxi, which take less than half an hour. Make sure you agree with the driver on a price in advance.

Morocco's train network is among the best in Africa, and there are regular departures from Mohammad V to the Casa Voyageurs station, the city's central station. From Casa Voyageurs you will probably have to take a petit taxi to your hotel.

Petit taxis are the best option; not only are the ubiquitous red Peugeots easily recognizable, but, unlike the grands taxis, theyutilize meters, minimizing your chances of getting ripped off.

WHERE TO STAY
Sheraton Casablanca Hotel and Towers: 100 avenue des F.A.R., Casablanca; phone: 212 (22) 439494; Web: http://www.sheraton.com. Features large rooms, fresh OJ at breakfast, a fitness centre and, if that's not enough, a popular karaoke bar.
Le Royal Mansour Meridien: 27 avenue de L'Armee Royale; phone: 212 (22) 313011; Web: http://www.lemeridien.com. More glitzy and indigenously Moroccan than the Sheraton but attracts the same clientele.
Melia Riad Salam: phone: 212 (22) 391313. Situated on the Corniche with access to a dubious beach, the poolside bungalows are a godsend in a city full of unimaginative hotels.

WHERE TO SHOP
Vogue INN: 18 rue Ibrahim Ennakhai, Casablanca; phone: 212 (22) 982784. Offers fashionable label clothing and accessories.
Exclusive: rue Mont Cenis, Place du Marché, Casablanca; phone: 212 (22) 277717. High-quality contemporary men's and women's leather shoes, purses and wallets sporting the Made in Morocco label.
Elegance: Twin Center, second floor, Casablanca; phone: 212 (22) 958071. Situated in an unlikely venue -- the Twin Center shopping mall -- this shop offers the highest quality caftans, hijabs and jellabas in town designed by local haute couture designer Sanae Benouna.

WHERE TO EAT
LP: 215 boulevard D'Anfa, Casablanca; phone: 212 (22) 940500. This spic-n-span café is easy to miss when driving by on boulevard D'Anfa, but its flaky pastries, copious racks of candy and frothy cappuccinos make it a gem.
A Ma Bretagne: Sidi Abderrahman, Boulevard de la Corniche, Casablanca; phone: 212 (22) 362112. The city's most luxurious beachside dining experience.Le Petit Rocher: Phare d'el Hank, La Corniche, Casablanca; phone: 212 (22) 366277. This lounge, bar and restaurant has the perfect view of the Hassan II mosque. Its food may leave some disappointed, but the Berber tent-cum-roof décor and enthusiastic service make amends.