Caves of Hercules and Cap Spartel

A Sea Cave Whose Mouth Is Worn Into A Shape People Read As A Map Of Africa, Beside The Cape Where The Atlantic Meets The Mediterranean And A Working Lighthouse Of 1864 Stands Above Both · Tangier, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima

Fourteen kilometres west of Tangier the land ends at a headland with a lighthouse on it, and just below, the sea has cut a cave whose mouth happens to be worn into a shape that looks uncannily like a map of Africa. That silhouette is one of the most photographed things in Morocco and it is genuinely worth the trip, but the cave is older news than the photograph: its inner walls carry hundreds of circular cuts where Phoenician and Roman workers quarried millstones out of the rock, and people lived here in prehistory. Above it, Cap Spartel's lighthouse of 1864 still works, and the signboards will tell you this is where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, which is a good line and not quite true - the two seas properly meet further east, nearer Tarifa. What you get is a short, cheap, scenic half-day out of Tangier with a beach, a Roman fish-salting ruin along the lane, and a line of cafes on the cliff for mint tea afterwards.

Cape coast road about 14 km west of Tangier, with the cave at Achakar beach and the lighthouse on the headland above, Tangier, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, Morocco

The cave keeps daily daylight hours with a small admission and a ticket desk at the top of the steps; it closes earlier in winter and the last entry is well before sunset, so an afternoon visit should not be left late. The walkway inside was rebuilt in recent years and its current condition is worth a glance before you commit if you are unsteady. Cap Spartel's grounds and the viewpoint are open ground; the lighthouse tower itself is usually not open to visitors. The Roman Cotta ruin further along the lane is unfenced, unstaffed and free, with nothing to stop you walking in. Cafes on the cliff open through the day and later in summer. Taxis from Tangier are the normal way out and should be agreed to wait; there is no useful bus.

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