Cap Spartel and the Caves of Hercules

Cap Spartel is the headland where the Moroccan coast turns the corner from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, marked by a lighthouse built in the 1860s that still stands above the cliffs and pine woods. A few kilometres down the coast are the Caves of Hercules, sea caves cut partly by the ocean and partly by hand over centuries, as people quarried millstones out of the rock. The view everyone comes for is from inside, looking out through an opening to the sea, a silhouette often said to resemble the map of Africa. Both are the standard short excursion from Tangier, usually combined with the beach at Achakar below.

History

Neolithic people lived in the caves around 6000 BC. They were officially opened to visitors in 1920, declared a national heritage site in 1952 and given electric lighting in 1982. In 1986 the ashes of the artist and writer Brion Gysin were scattered here, and on 23 October 1995 Def Leppard played a concert in the cave as part of a day of three shows on three continents. A rockfall caused by nearby building work closed the caves on 20 December 2003 until January 2004, and they reopened again in October 2015 after a renovation (Wikipedia, Caves of Hercules).

Highlights

• The cave mouth - the sea opening framed in rock, the shot everyone comes for.
• The quarried walls - tool marks left by centuries of millstone cutting.
• Cap Spartel lighthouse - the square stone tower of the 1860s, still working.
• The pine woods and cliffs - the wooded coast road between cape and caves.

When to go

Late afternoon suits the cape, when the sun drops towards the Atlantic behind the lighthouse. The caves are better earlier, before coach groups and the middle of the day; the light through the opening is strongest when the sun is out over the water. Spring and autumn are comfortable, and summer weekends bring heavy local traffic on the coast road.

Practical notes

The caves are small and the visit is short, a walk of a few minutes through a lit passage to the opening, and the entry fee feels high for what it is. Both sites are heavily commercialised, with stalls, camel rides and men offering to take your photograph for a fee. Parking touts are persistent, and there is usually a queue for the famous view in season.

Nearby

The beach at Achakar lies below the caves, and Tangier's medina and kasbah are twenty minutes east.