The man in question is the legendary Ibn Battuta and I have, without foresight or forewarning, stumbled upon the humble, unassuming ­mausoleum in which he is purported to be buried. His adventures were captured in Rihla, an account of Battuta’s ­expeditions that he recounted to scholar Ibn Juzayy. But, despite his wandering ways, the Tangier-born explorer is entombed in the land where he came from. “The blue of the sky of Tangier is very special,” our guide says with a smile, noting that it inspired artists such as Henri Matisse, with the city’s signature cerulean ceiling immortalised by his brushstrokes. While the likes of Ibn Battuta may have departed Tangier for decades, it seems that the arty and the erudite will continue to flock to its paved streets for centuries.

Source: The North Africa Journal October 11, 2019 04:52 UTC