Tangier

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Port in north Morocco, on the Strait of Gibraltar, 58 km/36 mi southwest of Gibraltar; population (2004) 669,700. Cigarette manufacturing is the most important industry, though, with the attractions of the Great Souk (market), the Casbah (citadel), and Great Mosque of the old town, tourism has become important to the economy. There are also fisheries, market gardens, textiles, and preserving industries. Tangier, long a terminus of trans-Saharan caravan trade routes, is also the northern terminus of the Tangier–Fès railway.

History
Tangier was first known as a Phoenician trading port in the 15th century BC, and later a Carthaginian settlement. It was the capital of the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana and was later occupied by Vandals, Byzantines, and Muslims 705–1471. Captured by the Portuguese in 1471, it passed to England in 1662 as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, but was abandoned in 1684, and later became a lair of Barbary Coast pirates. From 1923 Tangier and a small surrounding enclave became an international zone, administered by Spain 1940–45. In 1956 it was transferred to independent Morocco and became a free port in 1962.

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