The name of the city derives from the Spanish meaning “white house” (blanca "white", casa "house"). The 1942 Hollywood classic movie Casablanca presented the unique charm of the city to the whole world, making it a hot destination ever since. Today, Casablanca is a name that has been known, especially among Europeans, for so many years that hardly anyone knows the fact that the city was previously called “Dar el Beida”, which meant the same thing as its current Arabic name “white house”. Lying in the western part of Morocco on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, Casablanca is the largest city and the busiest port of the country.

There is a story that a retired American female diplomat built a coffee house modeled on Rick’s Café in the United States back in the late 1960s after watching the movieCasablancaover 100 times.