Tuesday October 10 - Gibraltar

Tuesday October 10 - Gibraltar

 We arrived at the Port of Gibraltar just before dawn. As the rising sun illuminated the landscape around us the contours of The Rock came into focus some 1,400 ft. above the town center.

Gibraltar occupies a strategically critical location where the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea come together between the southern coast of Spain and the northern coast of Morrocco. Gibraltar was first inhabited over 50,000 years ago by Neanderthals and archaeological evidence suggests that Gibraltar may have been one of their last places of habitation before evidence of Neanderthal disappears around 25,000 years later. 

Gibraltar's recorded history began around 950 BC with the Phoenicians amongst the first to recognize and worship the genius loci of the place, followed by various evidence from the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Carthaginians and Romans. There is also evidence of shrines built on the Rock of Gibraltar to Hercules. The Romans named the jutting protrusion of limestone Mons Calpe,^[2] the "Hollow Mountain" (more on that in a bit), they regarded it as one of the twin Pillars of Hercules.

View from the top of Gibraltar with the Atlantic Ocean on the left, Mediterranean on the right and Morrocco on the horizon.

View of the top of The Rock of Gibraltar from the center of town

Gibraltar became part of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania following the collapse of the Roman Empire and came under Muslim Moorish rule in 711 AD. It was permanently settled for the first time by the Moors and was renamed Jebel Tariq – the Mount of Tariq, later corrupted into Gibraltar. 

The Christian Crown of Castile annexed it in 1309, lost it again to the Moors in 1333 and finally regained it in 1462. In 1350 King Alfonso XI and much of his Castilian Army suddenly died by the Black Death while besieging the castle which effectively delayed the Reconquista for 141 years. Gibraltar became part of the unified Kingdom of Spain and remained under Spanish rule until 1704. It was captured during the War of the Spanish Succession by an Anglo-Dutch fleet in the name of Charles VI of Austria, the Habsburg contender to the Spanish throne. At the war's end, Spain ceded the territory to Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713.

British Gun emplacements atop Gibraltar control access through the straight, circa 1942

Spain has tried to regain control of Gibraltar, which Britain had declared a Crown colony, through military, diplomatic and economic pressure. Gibraltar was besieged and heavily bombarded during three wars between Britain and Spain but the attacks were repulsed on each occasion. By the end of the last siege, in the late 18th century, Gibraltar had faced fourteen sieges in 500 years. In the years after the Battle of Trafalgar, Gibraltar became a major base in the Peninsular War. The colony grew rapidly during the 19th and early 20th centuries, becoming a key British possession in the Mediterranean. It was a key stopping point for vessels en route to India via the Suez Canal. A large British naval base was constructed there at great expense at the end of the 19th century and became the backbone of Gibraltar's economy.

Barrel-sight from the last remaining original canon emplacement circa 1800

From atop The Rock, a view of our ship Seabourn Ovation and the Gibraltar airport, the only commercial airport in the world to feature a road running across the middle of the runway. When aircraft are arriving or departing gates close off the runway to vehicular traffic crossing to the rocky outpost.

Main Street shops and restaurants

From the center of town, we hired a minivan for a two-hour tour of The Rock, beginning with the scenic overlook at the top which has been inhabited by Moroccan monkeys who have no fear of humans, and a healthy appetite for our treats as the tourists learn when their ice creams are deftly swiped from their hands and consumed in flagrante and without remorse.

Last stop on our Gibraltar excursion was St. Michaels Caves, a naturally occurring cluster of caverns embedded in the hillside (hence the earlier reference to the "hollow mountain") and adorned by massive stalactites and stalagmites colored by the mineral deposits infused into the groundwater by the limestone and basalt.

The cave was slated for use as an emergency field hospital during WW2 but never put to use. Today it has been converted to a tourist attraction and fitted with a stage and ingenious lighting that amplifies the natural beauty of the structures with holographic imagery.