A Taste of Tangier

December 19^th, 2025

 My plan for exploring Morocco is to do a big counterclockwise loop around the country, which means starting with travelling down the coastline.  In the northwest corner of Morocco is the second largest city of the nation, Tangier.  It was established around 1000 BC and has been an important port for many hundreds of years.

I was a bit trepidatious of what the driving was going to be like in the city of over a million inhabitants and how difficult it would be to find parking.  Thankfully those concerns turned out to be unfounded as it was quite easy to drive to the heart of Tangier on the coast and the parking lot that I located on the camping app that I’m using for Morocco (Park4Night) was barely half full.  A helpful parking attendant ushered me over to a spot and then took my parking fee while also asking for some of my “bonbons”.  I was happy to share some of my British Fruit Gums with him.

Octi's parking spot in Tangier.

The view along the waterfront.

I’m not a huge fan of busy or crowded cities so I wanted to walk around aimlessly for an hour or two in the medina, which is the historic, walled, old quarter of many North African cities.  Getting lost can be fun, even though it’s hard to truly get lost when you have Google Maps in your pocket.

Starting into the medina.

One of the bigger streets in the medina.

That's a man disappearing down the lane, like a dark ghost.  He's wearing a djellaba, a long, loose fitting one piece outer robe with a pointy hood.  It made me feel like I was in a Star Wars movie...

Looks like this lane is under partial reconstruction.

Getting lost in the medina.

Looking out towards the harbor.

There were a couple of spots I hoped to see and the first was the kasbah, which means “fortress” in Arabic.

The entrance to the kasbah.

The exit of the kasbah to the walls above the oceanfront.

There's a cruise ship in the middle of this photo.

Looking the other way down the coast.

The view from the kasbah.

Back into the medina.

The other landmark I had read about was the “Grand Socco”, which was just a square on the outskirts of the medina.  Actually, it was an oblong roundabout, and it really wasn’t that impressive…I wondered why it was mentioned as often as it was on travel websites.

The "Grand Socco".

From the other side of the square, which is actually more of an oblong shape.

Another fountain at a roundabout.

Old cannons that were used to protect the city.

A lovely old theatre, although I cut off the bottom of the building as it was under renovations.

The gate to the Jewish cemetary.  Naomi told me that it reads "House of Life", because they represent the Jewish belief in the soul's eternal journey, the promise of resurrection, and the permanent resting place for the body, making it a sacred space connected to life, not just death.  This is why the Israelis were so hell bent (maybe not the best wording) on retrieving the bodies of the hostages back from Gaza.

The older section of the cemetary.

This guy is trying to cut down a small plant that is growing out from the cracks of the wall of the citadel.

No health and safety to be found here...impressively he succeeded in defoliating the wall.

Heading down to Octi, on the outside of the walled part of the medina.

Interesting place to have your home.  Those steps were pretty steep.

Some leftover cannons on the wall.

Back in Octi, I headed off south, along the city coastline.  As the road veered inland, there were many kids getting out of school.  Google took me up a steep hill to a stop sign where I had to turn right.  It was steep enough that the back tires started to spin out but I eventually got enough traction to get around the corner.  I then entered the rich neighbourhood of the city.  I could see the odd mansion with big stone fences around them but then there were some properties with not only a fence, but a guardhouse or two with a sentry keeping watch.  When you can’t even see the home, you know it’s fancy!

About half an hour out of the city is Cap Spartel (cap is French for cape).  It is a promontory at the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar and since it is about 1000 feet above sea level, it’s a perfect place for a lighthouse, which started operation in 1864.  I decided to pay the 50 dirhams entry fee ($7 CAD) and climb the stairs to the top the check out the view.

Arriving at Cap Spartel.

A statue of an old lighthouse keeper.

Entering the courtyard beside the lighthouse.  I love the painting of the serious Moroccan businessman on the right.

The courtyard.

Looking up from the courtyard.

Looking up the spiral staircase.

The view from the top.

The restaurant and gardens below.

The Moroccan flower flag.

The Fresnel lens of the lighthouse.

Looking towards the entrance to the park.

Enjoying the music at the base of the lighthouse.

There were some painted dishes on a wall...this was my favourite one.

A nice view of the seaside near Cap Spartel.

I drove another hour south along the coast and pulled into a dilapidated campsite called Tahadart.  At the entrance, there were old, weathered statues of animals like zebras and emus with paint dulled by years of UV rays.  I was greeted by a friendly Moroccan guy in his mid-20s who I later found out was fluent in Arabic, English, German and could get by in French…that’s impressive!

 

I settled in and looked forward to a shower as it had been a number of days since I was staying at a campsite.  Unfortunately, there was no hot water so it was a chilly, but still, it was good to get clean.

 

I was pleased with my first full day in Morocco.  I often have a bit of apprehension about entering a new, foreign country, especially one of non-Western culture, but that’s now gone.  Tomorrow’s another big city though, Rabat, the capital of Morocco.