At the end of the world: the cities around the Straight of Gibraltar

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At the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea, Africa and Europe, only a few dozens of miles apart, almost touch each other. Only by a narrow inlet separates both sides: the Straight of Gibraltar, formerly known as the “Pillars of Hercules”. According to mythology, the two continents used to form only one, until the hero Hercules split it. In Antiquity, the straight was a crossing point rather than a border. In this article, we will discover the history of the cities situated on the Straight of Gibraltar.

From myth…

During Antiquity, it was believed that the world was a flat disk. Mauretania and Spain were considered as the last inhabited regions, and the Straight of Gibraltar represented the end of the world. The “Pillars of Hercules”, two mountains on either side of the straight – probably the Rock of Gibraltar, to the North, and Djebel Musa, to the South – were a sign for travelers, that they had arrived at the edge of the known world. Close to Tangier, the Caves of Hercules, where he spent the night during his travels, is a popular tourist site.

In such a worldview, the straight cities played an important role, as guardians of the civilized world. The Greeks were fascinated by these far-away cities, and placed some of their myths there, also mixing them with local Amazigh myths. According to one of their myths, Tingis (Tangier) was founded by Syphax, the son of Hercules and the daughter of King Atlas of Mauretania, who named the city after his mother. Some sources say that the Garden of the Hesperides, where Hercules went to find the famous golden apples, was in Lixus. The ruins of Lixus (close to modern-day Larache) contain numerous frescoes of mythological scenes.

… to history

The oldest city on the straight is Tingis, founded around the 8th Century by Phoenician merchants. Its name derives from the Amazigh word tinjit, water mass. Because of its strategic location, Tingis quickly became an important port in the Phoenician commercial roads. Other Phoenician colonies appeared, in Lixus (Larache), Abyla (Sebta), Rusadir (Melilla), and then further South, along the Atlantic coast.

Another Phoenician colony was founded on the Spanish side of the straight, just across Tangier. This site certainly served as a seasonal port already before, but the first permanent population arrived in the 7th Century and was probably originally Carthaginian. The Phoenician name of the city, Gadir, has the same root as Agadir, another port city founded by the Phoenicians. Its Roman name, Gades, later became Gadix, and then Cadiz. The city was mostly famous for its temple of the Phoenician god Melqart, whom the Greeks and Romans would identify to Hercules.

During the 7th Century, the Phoenician colonies around the straight came under Carthaginian control. Tingis was one of the main ports in the Carthaginian Empire, with Carthage and Leptis Magna. Gadir was the main Carthaginian city in Spain, until Carthago Nova (Carthagene) was founded. The expeditions of the great Carthaginian explorers probably started from Tingis and Gadir. While the Phoenician presence extended further South, until Agadir, Carthaginian influence ended in Lixus.

The straight cities only played a minor role in the Punic Wars: the Romans attacked Africa from Sicily. Before starting his military campaign in Italy, Hannibal offered a sacrifice to Melqart/Hercules, at the temple in Gadir.

After the second Punic war, the North African cities were attached to the Kingdom of Mauretania. However, Tingis maintained its Punic heritage, still issuing bronze coins with Punic inscriptions. Around this time, King Baga founded the city of Tamuda (Tetouan).

The reign of King Juba II of Mauretania was the golden age of the city of Lixus, which became a major economic center, thanks to its industrial complex, the largest in the Mediterranean basin. Its economy relied mostly on fishing and viticulture.

After the Roman annexation, Tingis became the capital of the province of Mauretania Tingitana. The city grew strongly, becoming larger than Volubilis, the historical capital of Mauretania.

Alongside Tingis, Lixus, Abyla (renamed Septem), and Rusadir also became Roman colonies. These cities were strongly Romanized, while the rest of Mauretania was hostile to Roman domination. Economically, the region, especially Septem, specialized in selling salted fish.

Tingis and Lixus were also the two main Christian centers in Mauretania Tingitana. The Mauretanian Christian martyrs were killed in Tingis, by the end of the 3rd Century. The ruins of the former church in Lixus are still visible today.

In the 5th Century, the Vandals, already present in Spain, crossed the Straight of Gibraltar and invaded North Africa. A few centuries later, a Muslim Moorish army crossed the straight in the other direction, to conquer Spain. The modern name of Gibraltar derives from Djebel Tariq; Tariq ibn Ziyad was the commander of the Umayyad forces in Spain. Since this far-away time, all successive invaders, until the modern-area European colonisers, came through the port of Tangier. Ceuta (Sebta) and Melilla, the last remnants of Spanish presence in North Africa, testify to the complex history of a region lying between two continents.

Long before Tangier became an international city in the 20th Century, the straight cities, as commercial ports, open on the world, were always strongly cosmopolitan. Over the centuries, they also welcomed many refugees fleeing persecution on both sides of the straight: Catholic Christians driven out by the Vandals, Muslims and Jews expelled from Spain, and anti-colonial activists. Their strategic location makes their unique identity: African cities, but close to Europe, multicultural and tolerant.