The Cap Spartel lighthouse was built by Sultan Muhammad IV in 1864, and it marks the most north-western point of Africa. On Sept. 2, we drove from Rabat to Tangier and spent a relaxing afternoon exploring the area west of Tangier, including Cap Spartel and the Hercules Cave. From the cape, across the straits of Gibraltar the coast of Spain was clearly visible. To the West, the endless expanse of the Atlantic Ocean stretches to the horizon and to the East ships are passing through the the famous straits into the Mediterranean Sea.
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The restaurants at the park are very popular on a nice day like this for watching the sunset over dinner. On only our second day in Morocco, we were still a bit tired from our adventure in Casablanca, so we just grabbed a table, got dinner and tea and spent a couple of hours chilling and watching the sunset together with other visitors from Morocco, North Africa and the Middle East, as well as other tourists from all over the rest of the world.
The old lighthouse is surrounded by very nice gardens that also feature several restaurants. The food we had was really good – pricey, yes, but look at the location!
Hercules Cave
The Hercules Cave is a sea cave near Cap Spartel that has been considered since antiquity as the place where Hercules rested before taking on the 11th of his 12 labors, which was to get golden apples from the Hesperides Garden. According to some writers, that garden was at Lixus near what is today the city of Larache.
The cave is pretty much a typical tourist trap, except that it apparently has been a tourist trap for 2000 years. Some of the signage there claims that the Romans would visit this cave and display fake skeletons of giants supposedly slain by Hercules. The cave was definitely well-known for a very long time, with archeological evidence going back 6000 years.
