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Tangier (in Berber and Arabic Tanja, in Spanish Tánger and in French Tanger) is a city of northern Morocco with a population of 350,000, or 550,000 including suburbs. It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar.
According to the Berber, mythology Tangier was built by the son of Tinjis, named Sufax. Tinjis was the wife of the Berber hero Antaios.
Tangier was an important city for the Berber, and Tangier is still inhabited by the Berber and the Arabs, and even the name may come from the Berber goddess Tinjis (or Tinga).
Founded by Carthaginian colonists in the early 5th century BC, the settlement of Tingis came under Roman rule as the capital of Tingitana, to come later to Byzantine rule before passing under Arab control in 702. Held by the Portuguese from 1471 and by the British Garrison from 1661 to 1684, it returned to Moroccan control in 1684.
Tangier's geographical location made it a centre for European diplomatic and commercial activity in Morocco in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was here that the German Kaiser Wilhelm II's pronouncement for Morocco's continued independence triggered an international crisis in 1905.
In 1912, Morocco was effectively partitioned between France and Spain, the latter occupying the country's far north and a strip of the southern Atlantic coast. Tangier was made an international zone in 1923 under the joint administration of France, Spain, and Britain (Italy joined in 1928).
The multicultural placement of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities and the foreign immigrants attracted artists like Paul Bowles, William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and the collector Jim Ede.
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.
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