Caves of Hercules
Interesting facts
- In 1986 the ashes of the artist and writer Brion Gysin, a pioneer of the cut-up technique, were scattered in the caves.
- Def Leppard's 1995 concert here was followed the same day by shows in London and Vancouver, earning a Guinness record for three continents in one day.
- According to legend, the Barbary macaques of Gibraltar reached the Rock from Morocco through the supposed tunnel beneath the strait, which would be more than 24 km long.
- Roman sources tell that Hercules smashed through a mountain here instead of climbing it, opening the Strait of Gibraltar and creating the Pillars of Hercules.
- The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus offered a different version: Hercules narrowed an existing strait to keep sea monsters out of the Mediterranean.
- The caves lie beneath Cape Spartel, the northwesternmost point of Africa, often mistaken for the continent's northernmost tip.
- Offshore lies Spartel Bank, a sunken former island that some researchers have proposed as the site of Plato's legendary Atlantis.
- Besides its famous sea opening, the cave has a second entrance on the landward side.
- The caves sit next to a summer palace of the King of Morocco on the Atlantic coast.
Why it is worth it
The Caves of Hercules sit on Cape Spartel, the headland where the Atlantic meets the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, about 14 km west of Tangier. The complex is part natural cavern and part quarry: over a long period Berber workers cut round millstones out of the walls, and the circular scars they left, along with the enlarged chambers, are still clearly visible. The site is known to have been inhabited by Neolithic people.
Its most famous feature is the opening towards the sea. Seen from inside, the gap in the rock has an outline that resembles the map of Africa, and it is often called by that name; tradition attributes its shape to the Phoenicians, though that remains a story rather than an established fact. Mythology supplies the rest of the name. Local and classical tradition holds that Hercules rested here before his eleventh labour, fetching the golden apples of the Hesperides, whose garden some ancient writers placed near Lixus on this coast. Another legend claims the cave was bottomless and connected by a tunnel under the strait to St Michael's Cave in Gibraltar.
The caves opened to the public in 1920, were declared a national heritage site in 1952, and received electric lighting in 1982. They have hosted unusual events: in 1995 Def Leppard played a concert here as part of a record-setting day of three shows on three continents.
Getting there
The caves are on Cape Spartel, about 14 km west of central Tangier, and the nearest airport is Tangier Ibn Battuta Airport (TNG). The nearest town in the local district is Gueznaia, about 8 km away.
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From the encyclopaedia
The Caves of Hercules is an archaeological cave complex located in Cape Spartel, Morocco.
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