Things to Do in Tangier, Morocco

Quick facts: Nearly a million visitors enter this cave annually to see an opening that resembles a map of the African continent to an astonishing degree. Remains of bones and pottery from the Paleolithic era were found inside, and legend has it that the Greek hero rested here after one of his exploits.

Highlights: The most beautiful moment you experience is at sunset, when a ray of sun pierces the arch and the walls and water turn into a moving golden painting. Sit low on the back platform and look through the opening from an angle close to the ground, and the full map of Africa appears while the echo of the waves resounds inside the chamber.

Quick facts: On this spot of the African coast, the waves of the Atlantic Ocean clash with the waters of the Mediterranean Sea at a rare meeting point. A white lighthouse 25 meters high has lit the passage since 1864, and the Moroccan sultan took part in funding it along with 16 countries whose international committee still manages it to this day.

Highlights: Guides often say the lighthouse here does not belong to a single country, as an international committee of 16 countries oversees it to this day, something you will not find at any other Moroccan lighthouse. At sunset, descend to the nearby cave to find a rocky opening shaped like the African continent through which a golden light enters, painting shifting colors on the damp walls above fierce waves.

Quick facts: The collection of this palace includes more than 800 archaeological pieces telling the story of the Mediterranean basin from prehistoric times to the nineteenth century. What amazes the visitor most is standing over a Roman mosaic depicting mythical scenes assembled from millions of colored pieces.

Highlights: From the high terrace on the southern facade, your gaze stretches over the entire Strait of Gibraltar, and on clear days you can see the shores of Spain only 14 kilometers away with the naked eye. In the inner Andalusian garden, a marble sundial still tells the time accurately after centuries, while a fountain of crimson marble flows among rows of palm trees and reflects its murmur on the ornate walls.

Quick facts: The first building gifted to the United States on foreign soil, presented by a Moroccan sultan in 1821 after the signing of a friendship treaty that remains in force to this day. Within its walls it holds an archive of more than 5,000 documents and manuscripts, and it is also the only American National Historic Landmark outside the United States.

Highlights: During World War II, the upper floors were used as a secret center for American agents disguised as a school for the blind under the code name "Port" to hide from the eyes of Axis agents. The dark iron safes and peepholes are still present in its walls, and beside them are more than 80 paintings made by self-taught Moroccans in colors that reflect the blue of the ceilings and doors.

Quick facts: An open square separating the walls of the old city from the streets of the modern city, crossed by a street connected directly to the port and the fish market. In its center rises a eucalyptus tree nearly a century old and over twenty meters tall, and it is the point where visitors receive their appointments.

Highlights: From the building of the Delegation Palace overlooking the square, King Mohammed V delivered the famous speech of April 9, 1947 in which he demanded Morocco's independence, and the square was officially named after that date. An hour before sunset, the overlooking cafes turn into an open theater where oyster vendors and chestnut carts move slowly under a golden light that touches the trunk of the giant tree.

Quick facts: A square the size of a small waiting room, where writers from twenty nationalities passed through during its most mysterious era. The number of tables at its cafes does not exceed a few dozen, and yet it was a stage for exchanging coded messages between rival agents in the 1940s.

Highlights: At a cafe overlooking it, William Burroughs was drafting his novel "Naked Lunch" in the 1950s. The story goes that a pot of mint tea used to move between the tables of spies as an agreed-upon signal to change the meeting place on hot nights.

Quick facts: More than 300 graves surround its walls, among them the remains of consuls and spies whose bodies chronicled the multicultural history of this city. Light travels through its Moorish arches and paints a scene on colorful Victorian tiles, a sight you will not see in any other church around the world.

Highlights: Inside, Moroccan arches meet crosses in a rare harmony, as Islamic geometric ornaments frame the stained glass windows beside English oak benches. In the garden courtyard, a marble plaque carved by the British community immortalizes its dead since 1683, the oldest written testimony to the graves of foreigners buried in this land.

Quick facts: It stretches over 65 hectares of cork oak and eucalyptus forests, and from its summit you can see the Strait of Gibraltar and the coasts of Spain 14 kilometers away on clear days. Here history met adventure: the original owner of the land was kidnapped in 1904 in an incident that shook Western capitals, and the ocean spray still wets the paths to this day.

Highlights: From the upper rocky edge you can see with your own eyes the meeting point of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea: white waves crashing from the west, and calm turquoise waters from the east. The forest paths preserve the story of the kidnapping of its owner in 1904 by a baron of the mountains, an incident that spilled ink in the world press for weeks and was sent by diplomats to Washington overnight.

Quick facts: The garden embraces a giant dragon tree over 450 years old, and its branching trunk mimics a miniature forest of twisting trunks. The walls surrounding it belong to an old palace that was the seat of the British delegation and then the French consulate across centuries of history.

Highlights: The branches of the dark tree extend over an area exceeding 20 meters, looking like two giant arms bending gently toward visitors. Locals tell that this tree is inhabited by a genie that guards the city, and many of them make a point of greeting it or leaving something small at its base before passing by it.