Travels with Craig and Jeri: Morrocan Odyssey Day 7

Morocco Day 7: Tangier to Rabat

Tangier was originally founded by the Phoenicians around the 10th century BCE as Tingis, later becoming a Carthaginian and then Roman settlement. Under Roman rule, becamea key port and was the capital of the Roman presence in north Africa. After the fall of Rome, it was successively ruled by the Vandals, Byzantines, and then conquered by Arab forces in the 8th century.

From 1923 to 1956, Tangier was designated an International Zone, jointly administered by several European powers. It became a haven for artists, writers, and spies. William S. Burroughs, and Tennessee Williams both lived here.

We first visited the St Andrews Anglican Church. Sultan Hassan I of Morocco generously donated the land for the church in 1888, a striking example of the tolerant relations between Morocco’s Muslim rulers and its foreign residents. Construction was funded largely by the British expatriate community and completed around 1894, though the church wasn’t officially consecrated until 1905.

The church was designed in a Moorish style, rather than the typical Gothic or Romanesque forms common to Anglican churches.Its exterior resembles a Moroccan mosque, complete with horseshoe

arches and Arabic calligraphy.

The bell tower looks like a minaret, blending seamlessly into the Tangier skyline — symbolizing harmony between Christian and Muslim cultures.

Inside, the wooden ceiling is modeled after those in traditional Moroccan riads, featuring intricate cedar carving. The Lord’s Prayer is even inscribed in classical Arabic above the chancel.

The sanctuary today is used by not only members of the Anglican Church, but also by the Greek Orthodox and Small Jewish communities (note the Star of David on the woodwork).

Our last stop in Tangier was the Moshe Nahon Synagogue

It is one of the most beautiful and historically important Jewish landmarks in Tangier, a vivid reminder of the city’s once-thriving Jewish community and its deep Sephardic heritage. The synagogue was built in 1878 when Tangier’s Jewish population was flourishing — numbering over 8,000 at the time. The Nahon family was among the city’s influential Jewish families, involved in trade, education, and communal life.The building served as one of Tangier’s main houses of worship until the mid-20th century, when much of the Jewish population emigrated to Israel, France, and Spain after Moroccan independence.

After decades of disuse, the synagogue fell into disrepair but was carefully restored in the early 1990s and again around 2011, with support from the Moroccan government and Jewish heritage organizations. Today it functions as a museum and cultural site rather than an active synagogue.

The interior combines Andalusian–Moorish and Jewish Sephardic styles of architecture with a blue and white color scheme, echoing both Moroccan and Jewish symbolism, carved wooden ark housing the Torah scrolls, intricate zellij tilework, horseshoe arches, and a high women’s gallery, and a central bimah (reading platform) surrounded by wooden railings.

The Tangier Train Station, officially called Gare Tanger Ville, is the main railway terminal in Tangier. It links northern Morocco with major cities such as Casablanca, Rabat, and Marrakesh. It’s also the northern terminus of Africa’s first high-speed rail line, the Al Boraq.