Private Tangier tours and day trips 

The history of Tangier is an amazing tale of foreign invasion, due to Tangier's strategic location at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. originally settled as a base for trading by the ancient Greeks and Phoenicians. It was named after the goddess Tinge, who was the lover of Hercules, and as legend has it, pulled Europe apart away Africa to form the Strait of Gibraltar. During Roman rule, it became the capital of Mauretania Tingitana province. Then came Vandals attacking from Spain in AD 429, followed by the Byzantines. The Arabs, who invaded in 705, quelled the Berber tribes. Tangier passed between various Arab dynasties, when finally, it came under the rule of the Almohad dynasty in 1149. In 1471, the Portuguese arrived, capturing the city, but only to hand it over to the British 200 years later. The English diarist Samuel Pepys briefly lived here, calling it ‘the excrescence of the earth’. Morocco finally regained control of Tangier under Sultan Moulay Ismail in 1679, who destroyed most of the city. Remaining in power until the mid-19th century, when North Africa once again became great interest to the European powers.