Hotels in Tangiers

At the northernmost tip of Morocco on the Strait of Gibraltar stands Tangier, city of intrigue and romance, a draw for decades of spies and smugglers, beloved by artists and writers. This is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Morocco.

Founded by Phoenecians, it became the important Roman port of Tingit. For many years in the 20th century until Moroccan independence in 1956, it was an international zone administered by eight countries with free trade and no tax which attracted international commerce. During the Second World War it became a busy focus of espionage for both sides.

It was ruled alternatively in the 15th and 16th centuries by the Portuguese and the Spanish and, for a short time, the English, in 1661. Today it is a lively and unconventional city which over the years has attracted such diverse characters as Errol Flynn, underwater explorer, Jacques Cousteau, Elizabeth Taylor and a steady flow of international writers, American beat poets and famous British painters. It was also a safe haven for remittance men, smugglers and characters trying to lose themselves in a foreign clime.