Tangier

The Carthaginian name of the city is variously recorded as tng (Punic: 𐤕𐤍𐤂), tngʾ (𐤕𐤍𐤂𐤀), tyngʾ (𐤕𐤉𐤍𐤂𐤀), and ttgʾ (𐤕𐤕𐤂𐤀); these appear in Greek and Roman sources as Tenga, Tinga, Titga, etc. The old Berber name was Tingi (ⵜⵉⵏⴳⵉ), which connects to Berber tingis, meaning "marsh". The Greeks later claimed that Tingís (Ancient Greek: Τιγγίς) had been named for Tinjis, a daughter of the Titan Atlas, who was supposed to support the vault of heaven nearby. Latin Tingis then developed into Portuguese Tânger, Spanish Tánger, and French Tanger, which entered English as Tangier. The Arabic and Tamazight name of the town is Ṭanjah (طَنجة, ⵟⴰⵏⵊⴰ). …

Tangier was founded as a Phoenician colony, possibly as early as the 10th century BCE and almost certainly by the 8th century BCE. The majority of Berber tombs around Tangier had Punic jewelry by the 6th century BCE, speaking to abundant trade by that time. The Carthaginians developed it as an important port of their empire by the 5th century BCE. It was probably involved with the expeditions of Hanno the Navigator along the West African coast. The city long preserved its Phoenician traditions, issuing bronze coins under the Mauretanian kings with Punic script. Under the Romans other coins were issued, bearing Augustus and Agrippa's heads and Latin script obverse but an image of the Canaanite god Baal reverse. Some editions of Procopius place his Punic stelae in Tingis rather than Tigisis; in either case, however, their existence is highly dubious. …

Central Tangier lies about 23 km (14 mi) east of Cape Spartel, the southern half of the Strait of Gibraltar. It nestles between two hills at the northwest end of the Bay of Tangier, which historically formed the best natural harbour anywhere on the Moroccan coast before the increasing size of ships required anchorage to be made further and further from shore. The shape of the gradually-rising underlying terrain creates the effect of the city as an amphitheatre, with the commercial district in the middle. The western hill (French: La Montagne) is the site of the city's citadel or kasbah. The eastern hill forms Cape Malabata, sometimes proposed as the point for a strait crossing. (Years of studies have, however, made no real progress thus far.) The Marshan is a plateau about 1,189 metres (3,900 ft) long spreading west of downtown along the sea. …

Never in my life have I observed anything more bizarre than the first sight of Tangier. It is a tale out of the Thousand and One Nights... A prodigious mix of races and costumes...This whole world moves about with an activity that seems feverish. When Count de Mornay traveled to Morocco in 1832 to establish a treaty supportive of the recent French annexation of Algeria, he took along the Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix. Delacroix not only reveled in the orientalism of the place; he also took it as a new and living model for his works on classical antiquity: "The Greeks and Romans are here at my door, in the Arabs who wrap themselves in a white blanket and look like Cato or Brutus..." He sketched and painted watercolours continuously, writing at the time "I am like a man in a dream, seeing things he fears will vanish from him. …

Tangier is Morocco's second most important industrial centre after Casablanca. The industrial sectors are diversified: textile, chemical, mechanical, metallurgical and naval. Currently, the city has four industrial parks of which two have the status of free economic zone (see Tangier Free Zone). Tangier's economy relies heavily on tourism. In the 1960s and '70s, Tangier formed part of the hippie trail. It became less popular and tourist attractions became run-down as cheap flights made central Moroccan cities like Marrakesh more accessible to European tourists; crime rose and a somewhat dangerous reputation drove more tourists away. Since 2010, however, King Mohammed VI has made a point of restoring the city's shipping and tourist facilities and improving its industrial base. …

The old town is still surrounded by the remains of what was once more than 1,829 metres (6,000 ft) of stone rampart. Most of it dates to the town's Portuguese occupation, with restoration work later undertaken at different times. Three major bastions were the Irish Tower (Bordj al-Naʿam), York Castle (Bordj dar al-Barud), and the Bordj al-Salam. …