Tangier — The Envoys' Medina

The walk

An audio tour from the Grand Socco through the legations of the old town to the Kasbah above the Strait, at your own pace

1. 

   01

   Grand Socco

   The Grand Socco, officially the Place du 9 Avril 1947, is the round square outside the walled medina, ringed by a mosque, cafés, banks and the old Cinéma Rif, with one arch leading into the Mendoubia gardens and another onto Rue de la Kasbah. The walk starts here because this was the town's outer market, where an Italian visitor in the later nineteenth century found women seated near the gate with heaps of greens and a long file of camels crouched around a saint's tomb, and because the Cinéma Rif, once a picture house of 600 seats, now keeps an archive of North African film. It is an open square ringed by traffic, so cross at the marked crossings; the Cinémathèque keeps its own hours.

2. 

   02

   St Andrew's Church

   St Andrew's is the Anglican church of Tangier, standing in its walled churchyard on Rue d'Angleterre, with a crenellated tower and a nave lined with marble columns inspired by the Alhambra. The route stops here as the first picture of foreigners living in Tangier on the sultan's terms: by 2022 its Muslim caretaker had looked after the church for fourteen years, and as the Anglican community shrank the church welcomed new parishioners, among them migrants from Africa south of the Sahara. The church and its graveyard keep their own visiting hours, and the stop works from Rue d'Angleterre at the gate, where the pavement is narrow and cars pass.

3. 

   03

   Mendoubia

   The Mendoubia is the white mansion in the gardens beside the Grand Socco, built as a Swedish consul's villa, later the German legation and then the seat of the Mendoub, who represented the sultan in the International Zone; today it houses a museum of the resistance and the commercial court. The route stops here for two visits: in 1905 the Kaiser rode to the house through decorated streets while crowds on the open ground in front fired volley after volley, as the Times correspondent who was there recorded, and in April 1947 the sultan spoke in these gardens before the representatives of the colonial authorities. The gardens are a public park on flat paths, open at hours set by the city; the court and the museum inside the building keep their own hours.

4. 

   04

   Fondation Lorin

   The Fondation Lorin is a museum of Tangier's political, sporting, musical and social history since the 1930s, housed since 1994 in a former synagogue, the Ez Hayyim, also known by the name of Rabbi Mordekhay Bengio. The route stops here for the town's Jewish community: Bengio, born in 1827 into a family of rabbis, accepted that secular subjects, like sacred ones, had to be taught in the schools, a guide of 1901 counted six synagogues crowded into a single lane of the old town, and the first Jewish Days of Tangier in 2022 included a guided tour of the places of Jewish presence in the medina. The foundation is up a short flight of steps and keeps its own opening hours; the stop works from the lane.

5. 

   05

   American Legation

   The American Legation, at 8 Rue d'Amérique inside the old walls, is the only National Historic Landmark of the United States in a foreign country, and it is now the home of TALIM, which keeps a museum, a research library and a cultural centre there. The route stops here for the long friendship between Morocco and the United States: the building housed American diplomats for exactly 140 years, from 1821 to 1961, the first American consul in Tangier was James Simpson, a Scot from Gibraltar appointed in 1797, and in 2015 local women were learning in its kitchen to make taj, a local marzipan biscuit. The Legation is a museum with a ticket and its own hours, in a lane close to the town wall; the stop works from the lane at the door.

6. 

   06

   Dar Niaba

   Dar Niaba stands on Rue es Siaghine between the medina gate of Bab el Fahs and the Petit Socco; it was the house of the Naib, the sultan's representative to the foreign communities, and is now a museum whose collection of about 350 works and objects was given by the collector Didier Sentis de Montoussy. The route stops here because several conventions and agreements were signed in this building, and next door stands the Spanish church of La Purísima, built in 1880 and 1881 on ground where Sweden had kept its legation since 1788 and used since 1996 by the Missionaries of Charity. Rue es Siaghine is narrow and busy with porters' carts and scooters; the museum keeps its own hours and the stop works from the street outside.

7. 

   07

   Petit Socco

   The Petit Socco, also called the Zoco Chico, is the small sloping square at the heart of the medina, beside which the State Bank of Morocco kept its head office from its founding in 1907 until 1952; the Spanish post office on the square was rebuilt in art deco style in 1926. The route stops here because this was the meeting place of the old town: an Italian visitor in the later nineteenth century found women selling bread on the ground and the modest houses of the legations round it, and Mohamed Choukri, who grew up homeless in these streets, later met Jean Genet and Tennessee Williams in Tangier. It is a small sloping square with café terraces, busy in the evening.

8. 

   08

   Grand Mosque

   The Grand Mosque is the main mosque of the old town, on Rue de la Marine just below the Petit Socco and above the sea walls; it was extended on its southwest side in 1962 and restored again in 2001. The route stops here for the building's long history and for a traveller's account: the traveller Domingo Badía, who went by the name Ali Bey and began his journey through the Muslim world in Tangier in 1803, found that the mosque had no drinking water and had a large jar fixed beside the gate, with the means to keep it filled. The mosque is open only to Muslims, so the stop is in the street outside; Rue de la Marine slopes and has steps further down.

9. 

   09

   Hotel Continental

   The Hotel Continental is the long white hotel built in 1870 above the port at the edge of the medina; it is being taken into the Royal Mansour brand of luxury hotels, and inside it keeps stucco ceilings, crystal lamps and period tiles. The route stops here for the harbour and for the Dar el Baroud beside it, which a guide of 1901 called the Powder House quarter: the tower is divided into four terraces, it has been restored in recent years, and since July 2025 it has been under the Directorate of Military History of the Royal Armed Forces. It is a viewpoint at the edge of the old town, and the way back up into the medina is by steep lanes and stairways; the hotel is being restored and the tower keeps its own visiting hours.

10. 

    10

    Dar el-Makhzen

    Dar el Makhzen is the Kasbah palace, its white crenellated front on the square of the citadel, high on the hill of the Kasbah, with the treasury and the prisons facing the mechouar. The route ends here at the old seat of power, where the palace has been the Kasbah Museum of Mediterranean Cultures since its renovation in 2016, and where the former prison reopened in December 2021 with an exhibition paying tribute to the artists of the School of the North. The Kasbah is reached by steep lanes and steps, but the square itself is open and level; the museum keeps its own hours and charges for entry.

Frequently asked

Plan the walk

How long is the Tangier audio walking tour?

Allow about 100 minutes. The route covers 2 km (1.2 mi) in 10 stops, including walking and listening time.

Where does the Tangier tour start and end?

It starts on the Grand Socco, the round square outside the walls of the old town, and ends on the Kasbah square in front of Dar el Makhzen, the old governor's palace.

Is the walk steep?

In places. After the Petit Socco the route drops to the sea wall above the port and then climbs steep lanes and stairways to the Kasbah, so allow for steps.

Do I need to go inside the museums or the mosque?

No. Every stop works from the street or the square. The museums, the church and the Legation keep their own hours and some charge for entry, and the Grand Mosque is open only to Muslims.

Will the Tangier audio tour work offline?

Yes, after download. Audio, stop text, images, and GPS triggering work without data; the live map background still needs a connection.