American Legation, Tangier

The Tangier American Legation is a historic building in the medina that served as the first American diplomatic property abroad, given to the United States by the sultan of Morocco in 1821. The rambling structure grew over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries into a warren of rooms spanning a lane on an arch. Now a museum and cultural centre, it displays paintings, maps, documents and rooms devoted to the writer Paul Bowles. As the only US National Historic Landmark in a foreign country, it is singular in diplomatic history.