Born in 1304 in the old town of Tangier called Medina, Ibn Batouta was a contemporary of Marco-Polo; He left his hometown at the age of 21 in order to return in his fifties.When he came back, he didn’t bring gold or precious stones, but the precise memories of his trips of 3 decades around the world. In his book called “Rihla” in Arabic, “Travels,” Ibn Batouta tells us about the religions, customs and mysteries of the territories he visited, which in our present day correspond to 44 countries and a route of 120 000 km. He did most of his trip on foot, from Tangier to China and from the Black Sea to Eastern Oriental Africa, then back to Tangier.Ibn Batouta took another trip, visiting the different towns in the north and south of Morocco, and then he crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to visit the Kingdom of Granada in Spain.
In his memory, the international airport of Tangier and a boat that links Spain to Tangier took his name. A dome was erected in the same quarter where he was born in the old Medina of Tangier.