Cruises sail past the port of Tangier. /Figureworm Creative
In ancient Greek mythology, Hercules divided the Atlas Mountains in two and opened up the Strait of Gibraltar, forming huge rocks and mountains standing on both sides of the strait, known as the "Pillar of Hercules".
Legend has it that the Pillar of Hercules represents <b>the end of the world</b>.
Bird's eye view of the Strait of Gibraltar. According to Plato, the island of Atlantis is in this sea. /Figureworm Creative
It is also the junction of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, with cargo ships and cruise ships shuttling between the two continents, and the ancient city of <b>Tangier</b>, known as the "Gateway to Africa", became a stopover for visitors from all over the world.
Cape Spartel Lighthouse, Morocco. Continental Europe is just opposite. /Figureworm Creative
<b>The port city has changed hands frequently over its two-thousand-year history and has even been exempt from Morocco for most of its time. </b>To this day, many of Tangier's street signs are available in Arabic, French and Spanish.
During World War II, the Spanish occupied Tangier; after World War II, Tangier was returned to Morocco, but the free port also became a privileged city for Europeans.
<b>Because of this, Tangier has a very high tolerance for vices, quite a taste of extralegal land. </b>
Diplomats, spies, wanderers, writers, businessmen, artists... Strange people wandered into brothels, theaters, and gay bars, leaving Tangier with all kinds of grotesque legends.
The narrow and lively streets of Tangier. /Figureworm Creative
Later, Jack Kerouac, Matisse, Alan Ginsburg, William Baros, and the Rolling Stones arrived, drinking wine, smoking marijuana, and indulgently. Tangier briefly became <b>the home of the Beat Generation</b>.
Mattis's Window at Tangier (1912). This window Matisse painted many times.
The only one left was the American writer <b>Paul Bowles</b>. In 1947, at the age of 37, Bowers settled in Tangier until his death in 1999. Here, Bowles completes his most important novel<b>, The Obscured Sky</b>.
Allen Ginsburg shots of Bowers. /Web pictures
In the 1990s, the American travel writer Paul Soru came to Tangier and paid a special visit to Bowles, who was in his eighties. In Bowles' dimly lit apartment, the two writers repeated the "classic action" of <b>smoking marijuana together</b>.
Bowles even met a man who <b>drank human blood</b> in Tangier: "He had an oversized refrigerator in his living room, and a batch of half-pint glass jars was hidden in the refrigerator... Each one contains the blood of a different teenager... Only half a pint is taken from them at a time, never more than that amount. ”
However, for those living in Tangier, <b>such a thing is no longer strange</b>.
Have a typical Moroccan breakfast on the terrace in Tangier. /Figureworm Creative
In the hearts of literary youth, Tangier is a chaotic <b>sin city</b>; in the hearts of backpackers, it is a unique <b>"holy city"</b> - in 1325 AD, 20-year-old <b>Ibn Battuta</b> set out from his hometown of Tangier and embarked on a legendary journey of a lifetime.
The Berber "first traveler" walked far beyond the famous Marco Polo, and Tangier's airport was named after him.
Ibn Battuta traveled all the way from Africa to the Yuan Dynasty's Thorn Tong City, which is today's Quanzhou. His statue can still be seen at the Quanzhou Overseas Transportation History Museum. /Ctrip
However, the new century's surging tourists no longer want to stop at Tangier, they turned to Fez, Casablanca, Marrakech.
<b>But when you actually walk into Tangier, you will find that the place is much cleaner and brighter than you think. </b>
Tangier Old Town "Medina". /Figureworm Creative
The Corniche is bustling, the beachside trendy hotels are lined up, the densely packed houses in the old town are painted in beautiful colors... In the distance, in the cave where the legendary Hercules lived, the waves were coming.
The cave where hercules lived in legend. /Figureworm Creative
In November 2018, <b>Africa's first high-speed rail opened</b>, starting in Tangier and leading to Casablanca. According to the plan, the line will continue to Marrakech and Agadir.
Perhaps, the speeding train will once again bring all kinds of strange people to Tangier.
Resources
Pillars of Hercules | Wikipedia
The Ghost of Tangier – Traveling and Reading in the Age of the Plague| Mr. Fashion
Pillar of Hercules | Paul Soru
Tangier | Gentlemen's Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 6, October 1963