Tangier

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Tangier (disambiguation).
Tangier, Morocco
Enlarge
Tangier, Morocco
Tangier bay in front of Gibraltar
Enlarge
Tangier bay in front of Gibraltar

Tangier or Tangiers (Tanja طنچة in Berber and Arabic, Tânger in Portuguese, and Tanger in French), is a city of northern Morocco with a population of 669,685 (2004 census). It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. It is the capital of the Tangier-Tétouan Region.

Contents

[edit] History

Tingis, now Tangier, is an ancient Phoenician town. Ancient coins call it Tenga, Tinga, and Titga, the Greek and Latin authors giving numerous variations of the name. According to Berber mythology, Tangier was built by the son of Tinjis, named Sufax. Tinjis was the wife of the Berber hero Antaios. There are other versions of Tangiers founding - Greek legend ascribes its foundation to the giant Antaeus, whose tomb and skeleton are pointed out in the vicinity, or to Sufax, son of Hercules by the widow of Antaeus. The cave or grotto of Hercules is only a few miles from the city. This cave is a major tourist attraction because of its association with Greek mythology. It is believed that Hercules slept there before attempting one of his 12 labours.

Tangier was an important city for the Berbers, and still is inhabited by Berbers and Arabs, and the city's name may be derived from the Berber goddess Tinjis (or Tinga). Founded by Carthaginian colonists in the early 5th century BCE. The commercial town of Tingis came under Roman rule first, a free city and then, under Augustus, a colony (Colonia Julia, under Claudius), capital of Mauritania Tingitana of Hispania.

In the 5th century CE, Vandals conquered and occupied "Tingi" and from here swept across North Africa.

A century later (between 534 and 682), Tangier became part of the Byzantine empire and later on came under Arab control in 702.

It was held by the Portuguese from 1471-1580; to Unification with Spain 1580-1640; Portugal again, 1640-1661; then, in 1661, it was given to Charles II Stuart as part of the dowry from the Portuguese Infanta Catherine of Braganza and received the British Garrison. The English granted Tangier a charter which made the city equal to English towns.

In 1679, Sultan Moulay Ismail of Morocco made an unsuccessful attempt to seize the town and maintained a crippling blockade which ultimately led to a British retreat. The British destroyed the town and its port facilities prior to their departure in 1684.

Under Moulay Ismail the city was reconstructed to some extent, but the city gradually declined until, by 1810, the population was no more than 5,000.

In 1821, the Legation Building in Tangier became the first piece of property acquired abroad by the U.S. government--a gift to the U.S. from Sultan Moulay Suliman. It was bombarded by the French Prince de Joinville in 1844.

The French legation
Enlarge
The French legation

Tangier's geographical location made it a centre for European diplomatic and commercial activity in Morocco in the late 19th century and early 20th century centuries. It was here that the German Kaiser Wilhelm II's pronouncement in favour of Morocco's continued independence triggered an international crisis in 1905.

In the early 20th century, it had about 40,000 inhabitants, of whom half were Muslims, 10,000 Jews, 9,000 Europeans (of whom 7,500 were Spanish). In 1912, Morocco was effectively partitioned between France and Spain, the latter occupying the country's far north (called Spanish Morocco) and a part of Moroccan territory in the south along the Atlantic coast that was called Spanish Morocco or Rio de Oro until 1976. Tangier was made an international zone in 1923 under the joint administration of France, Spain, and Britain. (Italy joined in 1928).

After a period of effective Spanish control from 1940 to 1945 during World War II, Tangier was reunited with the rest of Morocco following the country's independence in 1956.

[edit] Ecclesiastical history

Tangier, like Morocco, is primarily Muslim.

Tangier is a Roman Catholic titular see of former Mauretania Tingitana (the official list of the Roman Curia places it in Mauretania Caesarea).

Towards the end of the third century, Tangier was the scene of the martyrdom of St. Marcellus, mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on 30 October, and of St. Cassian, mentioned on 3 December. It is not known whether it was a diocese in ancient times.

Under the Portuguese domination, it was a suffragan of Lisbon and, in 1570, was united to the diocese of Ceuta. Six of its bishops are known, the first, who did not reside in his see, in 1468. In the protectorate era of Morocco Tangier was the residence of the prefect Apostolic of Morocco, which mission was in charge of the Friars Minor. It had a Catholic church, several chapels, schools, and a hospital.

Tangier is a host of the Anglican church of Saint Andrew.

[edit] Espionage history

Tangier has been reputed as a safe house for international spying activities. Its position during the Cold War and other spying periods of the 19th and 20th century is legendary. Tangier acquired the reputation of a spying and smuggling centre and attracted foreign capital due to political neutrality and commercial liberty at that time.

The city has also been a subject for many spy fiction books and films. (See Tangier in popular culture below).

[edit] Culture

A painting by Louis Comfort Tiffany depicting a market outside of the walls of Tangier.
Enlarge
A painting by Louis Comfort Tiffany depicting a market outside of the walls of Tangier.

The multicultural placement of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities and the foreign immigrants attracted artists like Paul Bowles, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Tennessee Williams, Brion Gysin and the Rolling Stones [1], who all lived in or visited Tangier.

It was after Delacroix that Tangier became an obligatory stop for artists seeking to experience the colors and light he spoke of for themselves - with varying results. Matisse made several sojourns in Tangier, always staying at the Hotel Villa de France. You can still visit his room where he painted the view out the window. "I have found landscapes in Morocco," he claimed, "exactly as they are described in Delacroix's paintings." The Californian artist Richard Diebenkorn was directly influenced by the haunting colors and rhythmic patterns of Matisse’s Morocco paintings.

Tangier also knew the rise of native authors such as Mohamed Choukri who is considered as one of North Africa's most controversial and widely read authors. Paul Bowles collaborated closely with Choukri on the translation and wrote the introduction for Choukri's autobiography For Bread Alone, described by Tennessee Williams as 'A true document of human desperation, shattering in its impact.'

In the 1940s and 1950s when the city was an International Zone, apart from the artists, it served as a playground for eccentric millionaires, a meeting place for secret agents and all kinds of crooks, a Mecca for speculators and gamblers, an Eldorado for the fun-loving "Haute Volée".

William S. Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch in Tangier in the 1950s and the book's locale of Interzone is an allusion to the city.

As a great collector of lead soldiers, the American billionaire and publisher of Forbes magazine Malcolm Forbes brought together a total of 115,000 models to what is now called the Forbes Museum of Tangier. These figures re-enact the major battles of history; from Waterloo to Dien Bien Phû, realistically recreated with lighting and sound effects. Entire armies stand on guard in the showcases, while in the garden, 600 statuettes bear silent homage to the Battle of Three Kings.

[edit] Economy

Tangier is the second industrial center of Morocco after Casablanca. The industial sectors are diversified: textile, chemical, mechanical, metallurgical and naval. Currently, the city has four industrial parks of which two have a statute of free zone (see Tangier Free Zone).

Tangier economy relies heavily on tourism. Seaside resorts have been increasing with projects funded by foreign investments. Real estate and construction companies have been investing heavily in touristic infrastructures. A bay delimiting the city centre extends on more than 7 km. Years 2007-2008 will be particular for the city because of the completion of the big projects like the second "Tangier-Mediterranean port" and its industrial parks; a stage of 45.000 places, business a district, tourist installations.

Agriculture in the area of Tangier is tertiary and mainly cereal. The small taxis are blue with a yellow bar while the big taxis are white.

The infrastructure of the city of the strait of Gibraltar consists of one port managing flows of goods and travellers (more than one million travellers per annum) integrating a marina and a fishing port.

The railroad connects the city with Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech in the south and Fès and Oujda in the east. The service is operated by ONCF.

The Rabat-Tanger expressway is operational since the summer 2005 and connects Tangier to Fès via Rabat (250 km) and Settat via Casablanca (330 km).

The Ibn Batouta International Airport (formely "Boukhalef") is to 15 km in the south-west of the city center.

Artisanal trade in the old medina (old city) specializes mainly in leather working, articles out of wooden and silver, traditional clothing and shoes of Moroccan origin.

The city has been knowing a fast pace of rural exodus of other small cities and villages. The population has quadrupled during the last two decades (1 million inhabitants today against 250.000 in 1982). The exodus phenomenon has allowed the appearance of semi districts peripheral mainly inhabited by poor people where the infrastructure misses.

The city postcode is 90 000.

[edit] Education

Tangier offers five different types of educational systems: Moroccan, American, French, Spanish and English. Each of these systems offer classes starting from Pre-Kindergarten up to the 12th grade, Baccalaureat, or High school diploma.

[edit] Primary Education

There are more than a dozen Moroccan primary schools, each dispersed randomly in the city.

[edit] International Primary Institutions

  • Ecole Adrien Berchet
  • Colegio Ramon y Cajal
  • English College of Tangier

[edit] International High Schools

  • Lycée Regnault (French High School)
  • English College of Tangier

Many universities are located both inside and outside the city. Universities like the "Institut Superieur Internationale de Tourisme" (ISIT), which is a school that offers diplomas in various departments, offer courses ranging from business administration to hotel management. The institute is among one of the most prestigious tourism schools in the country. Other colleges such as the "Ecole Nationale de Commerce et de Gestion" (ENCG-T) is among the biggest business schools in the country.

[edit] Tangier in popular culture

Tangier was the subject of many artistic works, including novels, films and music.

[edit] Literature

[edit] Magazines

  • Antaeus (magazine) was first published in Tangier by Daniel Halpern and Paul Bowles before being shifted to New York
  • Tangier Gazette was founded by William Augustus Bird (aka Bill Bird) in Tangier

[edit] Films

  • The Living Daylights - a James Bond movie where he hunts Brad Whitaker down at his Tangier headquarters
  • From Russia with Love - the fictional character in "James Bond", Red Grant was recruited by "SPECTRE" in Tangier in 1962, whilst on the run from the law
  • Casino - Robert De Niro stars as Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a top gambling handicapper who is called by The Mob to oversee the day-to-day operations at the fictional Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas.
  • Tangier Incident - an American agent posing as a black market operator, is in Tangier on a mission to stop the plans of three atomic scientists who are there to pool their secrets and sell them in a package to the Communists.
  • Man from Tangier (a.k.a. Thunder Over Tangier) - 1957
  • Tangiers, 1908 was one of the unaired Young Indiana Jones Chronicles episodes
  • Flight to Tangier (Charles Marquis Warren) - 1953
  • Tangier featuring Sabu Dastagir - 1946
  • The Nautch of Tangier (aka The Witchmaker) - 1969
  • Tangier featuring María Montez - 1946
  • Espionage in Tangiers. A thriller of a secret agent out to snag a dangerous molecular ray-gun - 1966
  • That Man from Tangier (in Spanish Aquel Hombre de Tanger) featuring Sara Montiel
  • The Bourne Supremacy, an espionage movie featuring Matt Damon - After a boat ride in from Tangier, the character "Bourne" allows himself to be discovered as he turns up on the net in Naples, Italy.

[edit] Music

[edit] Paintings

[edit] People born in Tangier

[edit] People who settled or sojourned in Tangier

[edit] People who died in Tangier

[edit] Trivia

  • One of the Lathyrus tingitanus plants is called Tangier Pea.
  • One of the inherited disorders of bloodstream is called the Tangier disease
  • The name tangerine comes from Tangier from which the first tangerines were shipped to Europe. The adjective tangerine, from Tangier, was already an English word (first recorded in 1710).
  • This poem called "Herb's Herbs" of unknown origin describing a capitonym

A herb store owner, name of Herb, Moved to a rainier Mount Rainier. It would have been so nice in Nice, And even tangier in Tangier.

[edit] Events

  • Tanjazz - An annual international Jazz festival.
  • Festival National du Film - An annual Moroccan film festival (8th edition in 2006).
  • Le Festival International de Théâtre Amateur - An international amateur theater festival.

[edit] Landmarks

[edit] Town twinning

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources and external links

[edit] Maps

Maps of Tangier 35.8° N -5.8° E


Portuguese Empire — Former colonies & present overseas territories
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../t/a/n/Tangier.html"