Rock the Kasbah ! Home of the rich and famous!

After the medina we went looking for the Kasbah. I had seen a sign and was on my mission. I had a Tripadvisor screenshot on my phone ready. We started asking people and the Kasbah was not some gate like the photo on Tripadvisor. I remember reading something like in the Kasbah you need a private guide. We were walking up a steep street admiring the old houses and continued asking for Kasbah. We had just passed a wall painting that said Dar Kasbah.

Then an older man in traditional or local clothing ? showed up. He began saying that the stairs were the entrance to the Kasbah. He was fluent in American English, French, Arabic, Hebrew and Spanish. We found our private guide!

The guide said that the James Bond movie with Daniel Craig the Spectre was filmed in this Kasbah. He saw him running through the streets. Henri Matisse the famous French artist had a house in the Kasbah as well. Jean Paul Belmondo, Kirk Douglas, Malcom Forbes of Forbes Magazine, Diego De Velazquez, Spanish painter had a house there as well.

Paul Bowles, American expatriate composer author of The Sheltering Sky, a book about Tangier which he visited in 1932 then known as French North Africa. French North Africa is the entire North African which was pre- British divide one country. (Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco) oh the horrors of colonisation that divided this region. Not again, I guess we can’t escape it. It’s part of this world’s history.

Yes Saint Laurent and Gucci residences are present in the Kasbah as well. The guide took my iPhone and snapped some pics of the YSL atelier through the gate. I sure didn’t have the balls to do that!

Inside the Kasbah, there was a synagogue and a mosque. Three types of Jewish people lived and still live in the Kasbah. These are the orthodox, Askina and Seferat Jews. Christians, Jews and Muslims all live in peace amongst the rich and famous in the Kasbah.

Rock the Kasbah was written in house number 22.

One of the homes of Malcom Forbes, the Dar El Mendoub that he owned in 1970 hosted great parties for America’s elite, CEO’s of MNC’s, presidents and diplomats. It was sold according to the guide for 47 million USD to King Hassan II. Forbes bough it for 2,5 million USD. America was the first country Morocco recognised as an independent kingdom. Hence American influences in Morocco were huge. The first American embassy in Africa was in Tangier. The American legacy is now a great place to visit for tourists. The Kasbah counts over 600 streets. Still can’t believe it! The houses look tiny and some residences are 2500 square meters with private gardens and pools. Having electricity and running water in the Kasbah is a complicated system of sharing with thy neighbours. It’s too small for cars to enter so I am sure many have staff to deliver groceries. Oh yes some houses had staff entrances like the house of Jean Paul Belmondo. It was an amazing trip inside, I couldn’t feel my legs how much one can do in one day. We took a taxi back because we were so far away from where we had initially parked our car. I am going to upload all the photos separately. Thanks Chahine for making it an amazing day!

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