About Graham Cornwell is a writer and historian who specializes in the history of modern Morocco. He has a PhD in History from Georgetown University, and is currently working on a book about the history of Moroccan mint tea.
A friend remarked to me that visiting Morocco was intimidating because she didn’t know what you were supposed to see. In Paris, you’d go see the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre; in Barcelona Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell and the Picasso Museum, et cetera et cetera. She was right, but only to a point. Some Moroccan cities lack monuments or museums with the same kind of name reputation as those, but nearly all of them have plenty of things to see.
Here at Orangerie, we don’t believe in days packed with sightseeing. We try to keep it manageable, with our days spent strolling, sitting in cafes, and browsing the markets. Still, we have stuff we love to see and we’re always discovering new ones, especially as Morocco rolls out a robust new museum investment and renovation program. Here are our five favorite Tangier sights:
1) The Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies. The Legation was a gift from the Sultan of Morocco to the US in 1821; it served as our consulate and, later, as an American language training school and Peace Corps training center. The OSS even ran its intelligence operations out of here during World War II. Today, it’s a museum, cultural center, and research library, housed in a beautiful mansion that sprawls across two sides of the street. The museum collection is really cool, with some rotating exhibits and some more permanent things. They have a great collection of Tangier-connected art and the museum is the best place to understand Tangier’s history over the past two hundred years or so. As is often the case in Moroccan museums, it’s also just a stunning building that you could enjoy even if you don’t care at all about history. Read more about the Legation here.
2) Donabo Gardens. We visited for the first time this past year and could not believe how stunning they were. First, it was a week day afternoon and we had the place nearly to ourselves, although it does fill up more on the weekends. The gardens themselves feature native Mediterranean plants and simple pathways, but there’s a really cool café decorated with all kinds of Moroccan ceramics (we love the ceiling hangings made from colorful hand drums). The menu is light but delicious, and if you pick the right seat, you can stare out above the treetops to the blue sea below.
3) Cap Spartel Lighthouse and the Caves of Hercules. I’m cheating by combining two, but they are nearby each other and if you’re going to visit one, it’s worth seeing both. The history of the lighthouse is cool but most folks will come for the stunning sea views. They’ve recently added a café, too, and there’s also a nice botanical garden worth checking out. Down the road is the Cave of Hercules, a small cave complex that opens onto the ocean. Legend has it that Hercules once sought refuge here, but most visitors are excited to find that the cave’s opening almost perfectly resembles the map of Africa, but backward. You’ll need a car or a taxi to get here, but your hotel should be able to arrange all this. (Caves are 10 dirham to park, 10 dirham to enter)
4) Kasbah Museum. Morocco’s big move to update and renovate its museums came to Tangier in a big way, with an entirely new kasbah museum and a small extension that features a contemporary art gallery. The kasbah museum is the old palace of the city’s governor, which has been restored to something near its former glory. Like most palace-museums, the colorful tiles and woodwork are the highlight. The collection itself, though, has some really cool (and very old) objects showing off Tangier’s long history of connections across the Mediterranean (Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, early Islamic, etc). History buffs could spend an hour or more; others could check it out in twenty minutes. Either way, it’s worth a stop. (Entry is 30 dirham)
5) Villa Harris. Walter Harris was kind of a Tangier legend. He wrote an important book, The Morocco That Was, about a critical period in Moroccan history when European imperial powers were trying to exert their influence over the country. He was a British journalist and probably knew the country better than any foreigner in the late 19th century. His villa/mansion, Villa Harris, is down the beach on the east side of the city, near the Malabata area. It's a long but possible walk or an easy cab ride. If you're taking the train, it's not too far from the train station either. Today, it has been lovingly restored and includes a great collection of paintings, as well as rotating exhibits.
