antique canons and artillerie in Marocco

[HeikoGrusdat]

One day in our holidays we visited Tanger, a big harbour city in Marocco, North Africa.

The interesting thing about Tanger is that the city was once a "open-city", led by several countries and governments. Still today there are british quarters in Tanger, french quarters, spain quarters, american quarters.... every quarter is looking different and has a different culture. Tanger and Marocco had a long history with many wars and enemies, still today you can find in the city relicts of all times and all nations........ here are some things that may interest you, but unfortunately taking pictures is not as easy as in other countries, not every picture is as good as I wanted or of some things I was not able to take more than one picture:

N?1: a nice big canon near the harbour...

[HeikoGrusdat]

a long range shot.... poor quality but heavy artillery

[HeikoGrusdat]

wonderful heavy artillery, of course looking to the sea....

[HeikoGrusdat]

one more...

[HeikoGrusdat]

older and smaller.....

[HeikoGrusdat]

here a canon with arabic writing on it - maybe someone can translate it for us....

Edited August 19, 2007 by HeikoGrusdat

[HeikoGrusdat]

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[HeikoGrusdat]

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[HeikoGrusdat]

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[HeikoGrusdat]

now we have a french canon from the era of Napoleon III. (I think......), made in Toulouse in the year of 1863

the tourist wanted to stay anonymous....

[HeikoGrusdat]

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[HeikoGrusdat]

the year of the production and the years of the inspections I think...

[HeikoGrusdat]

and a look inside..............

[HeikoGrusdat]

two more big canons are looking over a wall of the Kasbah.......

[HeikoGrusdat]

and an old fortification watchtower of the Kasbah.........

[HeikoGrusdat]

one more canon looking over the city of Tanger and the harbour....

[Paul R]

Thanks for sharing the photos. It looked like a great vacation. What was the American Quarter like? I cannot get over the amount of Artillery there!!!

[HeikoGrusdat]

Paul, there was a lot of more artillery in this town, but you are not allowed to photograph soldiers and policemen in Marocco - and often they stood near to the artillery...

The american quarter is one of the best quarters of Tanger, near to the best hill over the city where the king, the major and some rich arabic men have their houses.... nice and big houses, not to compare with the rest of the city!!! There is a house of Barbara Hutton too......

American quarter:

[HeikoGrusdat]

very nice houses near the american quarter...

[peter monahan]

Well., I'm not a gunner, but #2,3,4 seem to show a mid-nineteenth century heavy muzzle-loader, either British or American made. Many examples of these in US and British forts (all over the world for the Brit stuff).

#16 looks like an early 19th/late 18th century bronze "long gun": a 32-36 pounder. No way to tell who cast it, I don't think, without close-ups but on the balance of probabilities, French or British.

Great photos!

Peter

Edited August 19, 2007 by peter monahan