Minarete - Tijuana, Mexico
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 32° 30.972 W 117° 00.324
11S E 499492 N 3597654
This minaret is on the grounds of a high school which used to be a casino complex.
Waymark Code: WMDZVR
Location: Baja California, Mexico
Date Posted: 03/14/2012
Views: 1
The minaret is actually a former chimney for an incinerator.
This tourist website for Tijuana list several things to see and do in Tijuana...including this minaret. The website informs us:
"The Minarete is placed where the Agua Caliente Casino used to be (now the Lázaro Cárdenas Federal Educational Center). The tower was built in an Arabic-Spanish style. Next to the tower is what remains of a beautiful tile-walled swimming pool. The Minarete is a very important part of Tijuana’s history and is considered one of the city´s icons."
This website (
visit link) explains that the minaret is an icon because it is a remnant of the city's past as a gambling and resort mecca for Americans:
"In 1928, the Agua Caliente Touristic Complex was opened, including hotel, spa, dog-track, private airport, golf course and gambling casino. A year later, the new Agua Caliente Racetrack joined the complex. During the eight years it operated, the Agua Caliente hotel, casino and spa achieved a near mythical status, with Hollywood stars and gangsters flying in and playing. Rita Hayworth was discovered there. Musical nightclub productions were broadcast over the radio. A singer known as "la Faraona" got shot in a love-triangle and gave birth to the myth of a beautiful lady ghost. Remnants of the Agua Caliente casino can be seen in the outdoor swimming pool and the "minarete" (actually a former incinerator chimney) nearby the southern end of Avenida Sanchez Taboada, on the grounds of what is now the Lazaro Cardenas educational complex.
In 1935, President Cardenas decreed an end to gambling and casinos in Baja California and the Agua Caliente complex faltered, then closed. It was eventually reopened as a school."
The newer nearby Caliente Racetrack no longer features horse racing...but reportedly continues to have greyhound races and the complex now operates again as a Casino.
The school doesn't seem to have an entrance for the public... but the minaret can be seen from the parking lot of the Centro Comercial Minarete strip mall where the coordinates were taken.
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