13. From Tangier to Tetuán ( Ceuta )

The journey to Tetuán, about 37 M., may be performed (on horseback or by mule) in one day, but travellers wishing to break their journey may spend a night at a fondak (see below) where, considering the rough accommodation, it is best to camp outside (tents and camping-utensils should be taken from Tangier). An escort is advisable. Or we may go to Tetuán by a steamer of the Bland Line (usually on Sat. even., in 3 hrs.; $4), and return thence to Tangier or Gibraltar by the Navigation Mixte (p. ; every second Tues.; agent at Tetuán, Salvador Hassan). From Tangier to Ceuta direct there is a weekly steamer (on Thurs.) of the Vapores Correos de Africa. For the excursion to Ceuta a passport visé by the Spanish consul at Tangier or Tetuán is required. A local boat crosses daily from Ceuta to Algeciras (p. ) in 2 hrs.

From the Outer Market we follow the Fez road (Pl. C, 3–5; Camino de Fez) to the S., passing at some distance from the stone huts of the Berber villages (Duâr) in the fertile hill-country of the province of El-Fahs. Nearing the village of Aïn-Dalia, we pass below it, ride to the S.E. in view of the steep peak of Jebel Zinat, crowned with the ruined house of Raisuli, and ascend in the fertile valley of the Wâd Marhar (Tahaddart). Here, on the right, beyond the hills inhabited by the Berber tribe of the Beni Msaur, we can sometimes descry in clear weather the distant Jebel Mulaï Abd es-Slam (5742 ft.), the most sacred mountain in N. Morocco.

The track then ascends through remains of cork-tree forest in the beautiful hill-region of the Wâd Râs. At the top of the pass (1476 ft.), the watershed between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, stands the fondak of Aïn el-Jedida, the largest caravanserai in N. Morocco (comp. above). The roof-terrace commands a fine view of the hills around.

The track, which soon affords a beautiful *View of Tetuán, now descends the stony slope to the E. into the valley of the River Martín, a stream rising on the Jebel Mulaï Abd es-Slam.

Tetuán (197 ft.; Hot. Dersa, pens. 10 p.; Hot. Calpe, R. 3, pens. 10 p., plain but good; Hot. Victoria, pens. 6–8 p.; Brit. vice-cons., W. S. Bewicke), Arabic Titawân, Berber Tettawên, an interesting town, containing among its 30,450 inhab. 6000 Jews, 400 Spaniards, and about 500 immigrants from Algeria, lies 7 M. from the Mediterranean and above the left bank of the River Martín, not far from the ancient Roman Thamuda. The garden-like environs are fertile and well watered. With its numerous minarets, its domed tombs of saints, its town-walls garnished with many towers, and its loftily placed citadel (Kasba) overshadowed on the N. by the red sandstone rocks of the Jebel Dersa, it presents a most charming picture of an Oriental town entirely free from European disfigurement. The narrow, winding streets recall the ancient part of Cordova, and the colonnaded courts of the externally plain Moorish houses resemble the patios of Seville (p. ). In the more regularly built Mellah (Jewish quarter) one is often struck with the beauty of the Jewish girls and the women’s gold-embroidered festive attire. Some parts of the town still show traces of the Spanish siege of 1859–60, which gained for the victorious Marshal O’Donnell the title of ‘Duke of Tetuán’.

The graves in the Jewish Cemetery are sometimes not unlike the anthropoid sarcophagi of the Phœnicians (comp. p. ).

The old Portuguese Watch Tower at Kilallin affords a superb panorama.

The mouth of the River Martín, which is much choked with sand, forms the harbour of Tetuán, but sea-going vessels have to anchor in the open roads. The trade of the place is unimportant.

A coast-road was constructed by the Spaniards during the Morocco campaign, connecting Tetuán with Ceuta (23 M.), but now only a track remains. It leads at first through the coast-plain at the E. base of Jebel Dersa (see above), and then, beyond the Cabo Negro or Cape Negron (886 ft.; Arabic Râs et-Tarf), skirts the fertile spurs of the Anjera Mts. Beyond the Moroccan frontier guard-house, we enter Spanish territory, protected by a chain of block-houses, and skirt the E. slope of the Jurassic Sierra Bullones or Apes’ Hill (2809 ft.; Arabic Jebel Mûsa, i. e. Hill of Moses), where apes abound. This is the highest peak of the Anjera Mts. and was famed in antiquity as one of the pillars of Hercules (p. ).

Ceuta (several small Spanish inns; no photographing allowed), Arabic Sebta, a town of 10,000 inhab. (of whom 3000 are soldiers), the only important Spanish possession in Morocco besides Melilla (p. ), lies on a narrow, flat tongue of land between a spur of the Sierra Bullones, crowned with the white tomb of a saint, and the strongly fortified peninsula of Almina, which culminates in the Monte del Acho (637 ft.). Originally Phœnician, it became a Roman colony, under the name of Ad Septem Fratres (later Septon or Septa Emporia), and in the middle ages was the most important and prosperous seaport of N. Morocco. In 1169 it was the seat, of a Genoese trading station, and in 1415 it fell into the hands of the Portuguese, from whose time date the ruins of Ceuta la Vieja (old Ceuta). Since 1580, in spite of repeated attacks by the Moroccans (1694–1720, 1732), it has remained in the uninterrupted possession of Spain, and it now presents a sadly decayed appearance. The tunny and sardine fisheries here are very thriving.