Context brings the brightest minds to your living room with perspective-shifting online lectures.

Tangier: Exploring Morocco's International City with Paul Clammer

Tangier: Exploring Morocco's International City with Paul Clammer


No events are scheduled at this time. Want to be notified when it’s back? Click the blue button to the right and we’ll notify you.

Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

Tangier is the city where Africa and Europe meet. Looking across the Straits of Gibraltar to Spain, for centuries it has been Morocco's gateway to the wider world as well as an alluring entry point for foreign adventurers, artists, writers, and tourists. In this historical lecture of Tangier for travelers, we will explore the stories and sites of Morocco's international city, from classical mythology to the present day.

From Hercules and the great medieval traveler Ibn Battuta to the Beat writers of the 1950s and the Rolling Stones, Tangier's streets have seen a procession of larger-than-life characters. Through their stories, we examine the city's history from its ancient origins to the present day. We will follow Tangier grow from a Roman outpost, through the competition between Europe and Morocco for control and its status as an 'International Zone', to a 21st-century city that sits at the forefront of Morocco's modernization.

Led by an expert on Morocco, travel writer and guidebook author Paul Clammer, this seminar pulls back the veil on one of Morocco's most alluring cities. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with an increased understanding of Tangier's unique history and cultural legacies, as well as providing tips for future visits.

Paul Clammer is a travel writer and the author of more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet. He first visited Morocco in 1994, and has been a regular visitor every since, working there as a tour guide and as co-writer on five editions of LP's guidebook to the country. More recently, he has lived in the medina in Fez, where his partner is` restoring a centuries-old traditional Moroccan townhouse.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 4 reviews
100%
(4)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
M
M.S. (Tucson, US)
Great introductory survey of history and culture

Mr. Clammer's presentation was founded on solid research combined with many personal visits. He gave a survey of the history of Tangier, whose history diverges in many ways from that of the rest of Morocco. It is a survey; in the short time allowed, he comfortably walks us through Phoenician, Greek, Roman, history and mythology, through the medieval period of Berbers, Almoravids, control by Portuguese, British, evolution of its peculiar international status through the 18th-20th centuries, its role in the evolution of orientalist Europena art, down to the present. The well-illustrated lecture gives a good framework for further reading.

S
S.M. (Portsmouth, US)
Very interesting details!

Very interesting details — lots of history and erudite gossip!

C
C.F. (Santa Monica, US)
Very informative and engaging.

This is the second tour I have done with Mr. Clammer and his knowledge, observations and experience in the region are interesting and impressive. Quite enjoyable.

D
D.B. (Casper, US)
Tangier

History and significant sites in Tangier

Customer Reviews

Based on 4 reviews
100%
(4)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
M
M.S. (Tucson, US)
Great introductory survey of history and culture

Mr. Clammer's presentation was founded on solid research combined with many personal visits. He gave a survey of the history of Tangier, whose history diverges in many ways from that of the rest of Morocco. It is a survey; in the short time allowed, he comfortably walks us through Phoenician, Greek, Roman, history and mythology, through the medieval period of Berbers, Almoravids, control by Portuguese, British, evolution of its peculiar international status through the 18th-20th centuries, its role in the evolution of orientalist Europena art, down to the present. The well-illustrated lecture gives a good framework for further reading.

S
S.M. (Portsmouth, US)
Very interesting details!

Very interesting details — lots of history and erudite gossip!

C
C.F. (Santa Monica, US)
Very informative and engaging.

This is the second tour I have done with Mr. Clammer and his knowledge, observations and experience in the region are interesting and impressive. Quite enjoyable.

D
D.B. (Casper, US)
Tangier

History and significant sites in Tangier