Top 10 Must-See Attractions in Tangier, Morocco

The Kasbah is the walled quarter at the top of the medina, and the place to start. Its white lanes are quieter than the souks below and good to explore slowly, and from the viewpoint by the Bab el Bahr gate you look over the port and, on a clear day, across the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain.

On the Kasbah square stands Dar el Makhzen, the former sultan's palace, built in the 17th century and now the Kasbah Museum of Mediterranean Cultures. The collection runs from prehistoric Tangier to Roman bronzes, a Roman mosaic of Venus and giant replica maps, but for many visitors the palace itself is the best part of the visit: tiled courtyards, marble fountains and, behind them, the Andalusian garden.

Walking through the medina of Tangier is like stepping back in time: a maze of narrow lanes, souks and small squares between the Kasbah and the port. It is the place to shop for Moroccan crafts, spices, leather and textiles, and to get a little lost among the locals, knowing the harbour is always downhill.

At its heart is the Petit Socco, a small square lined with old cafés, the Café Central and the Café Tingis among them, and said to stand on the site of the Roman forum. From there Rue Siaghine, the old jewellers' street, climbs to the Grand Socco, the busy square where the medina meets the new town.

Cap Spartel is the north-western tip of Africa, the cape where the Atlantic Ocean meets the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. Its white lighthouse stands among palms above the cliffs, and the viewpoint has some of the best views in Morocco, over the Strait and down the Atlantic coast.

The drive is part of the pleasure: the road climbs through the wooded hills west of the city before dropping to the cape. The lighthouse keeps a small museum, and below the cape the coast opens onto the long beaches of the Atlantic side.

The Tangier American Legation Museum is a Moorish-style building in the lower medina, given to the United States by the Sultan in 1821. It was the first American public property abroad, and it is still the only US National Historic Landmark outside the United States.

Morocco was among the first countries to recognise the young United States, in 1777, and the museum tells the story of that friendship through letters, maps, paintings and photographs, a letter from George Washington to the Sultan among them. One wing is given to the writer Paul Bowles, who lived in Tangier from 1947 until his death in 1999.

The Grand Mosque stands in the lower medina, a short walk below the Petit Socco. Its site has changed faith more than once: a Roman temple, then a Portuguese church, then, after 1684, a mosque, enlarged in the early 1800s. Its green-tiled minaret rises above the roofs of the old town.

Only Muslims may go inside, but the carved and painted gate and the minaret are worth the stop on your way down through the medina, and your guide can explain the tilework and the calligraphy.

Perdicaris Park, also known as Rmilat, is a forest of pines and eucalyptus on the hills west of the city, with paths running down towards the Strait. It takes its name from Ion Perdicaris, an American who built his summer house, Villa Aidonia, here in the 19th century; his kidnapping in 1904 became an international affair.

Today it is where Tangier's families come to walk in the shade, with views of the sea between the trees, and it makes a calm stop on the road to Cap Spartel.

The Caves of Hercules open onto the Atlantic a few minutes from Cap Spartel. Legend says Hercules rested here after his labours, and the sea-facing opening, seen from inside, has the outline of Africa: a mirror image of the continent, and the most photographed spot in the caves.

They are part natural and part cut by hand; for centuries people quarried millstones from the rock, which left the round marks on the walls. A paved path leads down, and Achakkar Beach, just beside them, is where the camel rides wait.

St Andrew's is the Anglican church of Tangier, a few minutes' walk from the Grand Socco. It stands on land that Sultan Hassan I granted to the British community, and the church you see today was built in the 1890s in a Moroccan style, with a square tower shaped like a minaret.

Inside, the arches and carved plaster are Moroccan, and the Lord's Prayer is written in Arabic above the altar. The quiet, overgrown churchyard holds the graves of Tangier's old British residents, among them the journalist Walter Harris.

Beside the Kasbah Museum, the old Kasbah prison has been restored as a museum of contemporary art, opened in 2021 and given to artists from northern Morocco. It sits on the same square as the palace, so the two make one visit.

For more modern Moroccan art, the Villa Harris Museum on the Corniche shows painters who shaped the country's art in the 20th century, Farid Belkahia and Mohamed Hamri among them, in the restored villa of the journalist Walter Harris and its palm garden.

The Corniche is the seafront promenade that curves around the Bay of Tangier, from the marina below the medina towards Malabata. Palm trees, cafés and the city beach line the way, and across the water rises the headland of Cap Malabata.

Locals walk it in the evening, and it is the easy end to a day of sights around the city: watch the sun go down over the bay with a mint tea or a fresh orange juice.