Tangier Seaside Cliff Steps

Just around the corner from Tangier’s Port Center, you find a twisting road that hugs the coastline. You can see the southern coast of Spain just across the water. At night, the location is crowded with locals, eating sweets, drinking expresso from the back of makeshift coffee cars, and picking at snails beneath signs for “Escargot du Nord.”

Following the cliffs, just before the Merkala Garden, a set of carved steps begins climbing upwards. Locals and the occasional backpacker in the know, follow these steps of doom, greeting each other as they pass. It’s not uncommon for locals to wait halfway up the cliff, chatting a little in Arabic, before continuing. 

Soon the route reaches the base of some buildings that overhang the drop, and you can have views across the coastline, cars and motorbikes speeding along the road, with the waves lit by streetlamps and the moon. 

The route then traverses the cliffs, until coming around the corner of a stone wall, you arrive at the Roman Necropolis, where tombs are carved into the rock. Here there are immense views of the Straight of Gibraltar and life below.