The sun is bright. The air is fresh and the views are wonderful. Up the hillsides climb white villas adorned with bougainvillea. Cafe society lounges beside art deco boulevards. But this is a place whose reputation is not for elegance and healthy living but for dirty deals, illicit lust and literary nightmares.
Tangiers is a paradox because of its unique, much-coveted position. This is where Africa and the east almost meet Europe, separated by a narrow stretch of water.
With Carthaginian and Roman origins, and spates of Portuguese and English rule, this ancient city at the northern tip of Muslim Morocco looks over to Christian Spain, just 15km away across the Strait of Gibraltar.
The relationship is long and intimate. From the 8th to the 15th centuries the Moors (Muslim Africans and Arabs) ruled in Spain. Later things swung the other way: in the early 20th century Spain took control of northern Morocco, with the French taking most of the rest of the territory.
Tangiers, a port of both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, a crossroads of east and west, north and south, strategically located beside a crucial international shipping lane, was a special case. Several foreign powers joined Spain and France in taking a keen interest in it and so by treaty with the Sultan of Morocco, it became an international city.
Thus began a wild period. From 1925 until 1956, Tangiers was ruled by an international committee of western nations, which was a fine recipe for laxity and corruption. A congregation of swindlers, smugglers, spies and sex tourists earned the city a reputation.
