Kasbah of Tangier / Dar el Makhzen

About this place

The Kasbah of Tangier is the fortified citadel that crowns the highest point of the medina, a district of power and prestige that has served as the seat of government for nearly every dynasty that has ruled the city. The original citadel dates from around the 10th century, but the present complex was fundamentally rebuilt in the early 18th century by Sultan Moulay Ismail of the Alaouite dynasty, who constructed the Dar el Makhzen palace on the ruins of the former English "Upper Castle." The palace was built by Pasha Ahmad ben Ali al-Rifi, general of the Jaysh al-Rifi and semi-autonomous governor of Tangier, to serve as the Sultan's residence and administrative center in the city. Perched on the eastern heights of the Kasbah, the palace commands sweeping views over the medina, the port, and the Strait of Gibraltar. The building is centered around two elegant courtyards decorated with carved wooden ceilings, marble fountains, and intricate arabesques, while the marble capitals of its columns were imported from Italy in the mid-18th century. After Morocco's independence in 1956, the palace was transformed into a museum. In 1922, French scholar Édouard Michaux-Bellaire initiated its conversion into a cultural institution, and it was comprehensively renovated in the early 2010s, reopening in 2016 as the Museum of Mediterranean Cultures and the Museum of Moroccan Arts and Antiquities. The Kasbah district also contains the Kasbah Mosque and the Andalusian Garden, making it a concentration of Tangier's political, religious, and artistic heritage.