Tangier, the Morocco gate
“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness”
(Arabian proverb)
Tangier (ver vídeo) is a city located in the extreme north of Morocco, and separated from the European continent by the Strait of Gibraltar. With a population of about one million inhabitants, it is the second commercial city of the country and the main gateway to it.
After the dismantling of the French colony that occupied North Africa until 1912, Tangier was under the joint administration of nine countries, almost all European, and somehow abandoned to its fate. Because of this, until 1956 Tangier became an international city, capital of European and North American bourgeois exile and meeting point of dubious businessmen, smugglers, spies, ruined nobles, russian magnates, jewish millionaires, eccentrics, prostitutes and all kind of opportunists who created a bohemian and libertine lifestyle, attracted by the exotic, cosmopolitan and liberal environment, as well as by the ease of doing business.
If you arrive by sea, the Continental Hotel will welcome you on arrival by boat, a monument to decadence that opened his doors in 1865 and still retains the splendid decoration of its halls, Continental hosted international celebrities such as Pío Baroja , Antoni Gaudí and Winston Churchill.
In the city there is still a certain bohemian air, intellectual and clandestine. In the Cafe de Paris, scene of so many stories that fed the intellectual fame of the city, or Cafe Hafa, that descends in ladder on the cliff of Marshan. From its tables, you can enjoy an unbeatable view of the strait and the Spanish coast.
Strolling through the Petit Socco or sitting unhurriedly at the Café Tinguis watching people pass while sipping a delicious tea is a must. Or tour the 9th of Abril Square, with the famous Cinema Rif, Mosque Sidi Boubaid, or shop around the Central Market and the old Fondouk Chejra, then through the Bab El-Fahs enter the Medina and discover some jewels, such as the tomb of the great traveler Ibn Batouta, the Jeddah Mosque or the Kasbah located at the top. This ancient Kasbah can be accessed from any of the gates: Bab Haha, Bab Kasbah, Bab Al-Assa and Bab Al-Bahr, through which will arrive in alleys to the Mechoir Square, with its Kasbah Mosque, the Kasbah museum and a small tea shop where usually act a group of veteran musicians: "Les fils du détroit".
