60 Fun Facts About Strait of Gibraltar

The Strait of Gibraltar connects the Mediterranean Sea to which ocean?

It also separates Europe from Africa.

How wide is the Strait of Gibraltar at its narrowest point?

That is 7.7 nautical miles; ferries make the crossing in as little as 35 minutes.

In the 2020s, what was the fastest ferry crossing time between the two continents?

Ferries ran daily between Spain and Morocco, and Gibraltar to Tangier.

What is the range of the Strait's depth?

The shallowest point, the Camarinal Sill, sits at about 280 metres.

The name Gibraltar comes from an Arabic phrase meaning what?

It honours the Umayyad commander who crossed in 711.

What does the naval abbreviation STROG stand for?

The archaic English name was the Gut of Gibraltar.

The Arabic name Bab al-Maghrib for the strait means what?

Medieval Arabs also called it Az-Zuqaq, the Passage; the Romans called it Fretum Gaditanum.

The Romans called the strait Fretum Gaditanum, after which city?

Gades was the Roman name for Cadiz, home of the temple of Melqart.

The promontories flanking the strait were known in antiquity as what?

Plato placed Atlantis beyond them, and Renaissance tradition says they bore the warning Ne plus ultra.

What was the Roman name for the Rock of Gibraltar, the northern Pillar of Hercules?

The southern pillar, Mons Abila, is disputed between Monte Hacho in Ceuta and Jebel Musa in Morocco.

Which two African peaks are the leading candidates for the southern Pillar of Hercules?

No single African peak is predominant, so the identity has been argued over for centuries.

Which of the labours of Hercules took him to the western limit of the world at the strait?

It was the tenth labour; Pindar called the pillars the "gates of Gades".

According to one Roman legend, how did Hercules create the strait?

Diodorus Siculus said instead that he narrowed an existing strait to keep out Atlantic monsters.

What Latin warning was said to be inscribed on the pillars flanking the strait?

It means "nothing further beyond", a warning to sailors to go no further.

How tall is the Rock of Gibraltar?

It is a monolithic limestone mountain at the tip of a 9-km promontory.

The Rock of Gibraltar is made mainly of what type of rock?

Its Jurassic strata are overturned, with the oldest layers lying on top of the youngest.

What is unusual about the Barbary macaques on the Rock of Gibraltar?

About 300 animals in five troops occupy the Upper Rock nature reserve.

In 1942 Winston Churchill ordered the Rock's monkey population restocked because of what belief?

The population had dwindled to just seven monkeys.

Around 5.97 million years ago the strait closed, causing the Mediterranean to dry and lay down vast salt deposits. What is this event called?

By geological standards it was quick, lasting around 640,000 years.

The ocean refilled the Mediterranean through the strait about 5.33 million years ago in what event?

Ninety percent of the refilling may have taken between a few months and two years.

During the refilling of the Mediterranean 5.33 million years ago, sea level in the basin may have risen at what rate?

The peak discharge was about 100 million cubic metres per second, a thousand times the Amazon.

If the strait closed today, how long would it take most of the Mediterranean to evaporate?

The evaporation rate exceeds all the rivers and rain that feed the sea.

Why does the strait's net water flow run eastwards, into the Mediterranean?

Saltier, denser Mediterranean water flows out underneath along the bottom.

What is the name of the strait's shallowest point, at its western end, where the two water masses are forced to mix?

Internal waves generated there can be traced for as much as 100 km and seen in satellite imagery.

How did German U-boats slip into the Mediterranean through the British-controlled strait in the Second World War?

Of 62 U-boats sent in, nine were sunk in the strait and ten more turned back damaged.

How many U-boats did Germany manage to send into the Mediterranean between September 1941 and May 1944?

All had to run the gauntlet of the strait.

Roughly how many orcas make up the resident pod around the strait?

It is one of the few pods left in Western European waters and is threatened by PCB pollution.

BirdLife International designated the strait an Important Bird Area because of what?

Shearwaters, Audouin's gulls, razorbills and puffins pass through each year.

The Rock of Gibraltar may have been one of the last refuges of which extinct humans, with evidence as recent as 24,000 years ago?

Gorham's Cave has traces of their presence going back around 50,000 years.

Which Umayyad commander crossed the strait in 711 to begin the Muslim conquest of Iberia?

He was governor of Tangier and, most sources say, a Berber.

According to tradition, which Visigothic count of Ceuta ferried Tariq's army across the strait to avenge his daughter?

He is said to have turned on King Roderic after the king violated his daughter Florinda.

Which Germanic people crossed the strait southward in the 5th century to raid North Africa?

Carthaginians, Romans, Moors and Berbers all used the same short crossing.

In which year did the last Muslim government north of the strait fall to a Spanish force?

Since then the two shores have developed distinct cultures after sharing one for 500 years.

Under which treaty was Gibraltar ceded to Britain in perpetuity?

An Anglo-Dutch fleet had captured it in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession.

In which year did an Anglo-Dutch fleet capture Gibraltar?

They took it on behalf of Archduke Charles of Austria in his bid for the Spanish throne.

The Great Siege of Gibraltar took place during which conflict?

It ran from 1779 to 1783 and left the town almost entirely rebuilt.

Which composer wrote a fragment celebrating the Great Siege, titled Bardengesang auf Gibraltar: O Calpe!?

He composed it in 1782 for voice and piano.

Gibraltar was one of four British "Imperial fortresses". Which of these was another?

Bermuda and Halifax, Nova Scotia, were the other two.

What is unusual about Gibraltar International Airport's runway?

Winston Churchill Avenue, formerly the main road to Spain, intersects the runway.

What is Llanito?

It mixes Andalusian Spanish with British English, Maltese, Portuguese, Genoese and Haketia.

The Spanish autonomous city on the African shore of the strait is called what?

Morocco disputes Spanish sovereignty over it, just as Spain disputes British Gibraltar.

Which kingdom conquered Ceuta in 1415?

King John I led his sons in a surprise assault on 21 August.

The Roman name for the Ceuta site, Septem Fratres, referred to what?

The Greeks called them the Heptadelphoi, the Seven Brothers.

Which Spanish town at the southernmost tip of Iberia is famous for wind sports thanks to the strait's funnel effect?

The Levante from the east and the Poniente from the west accelerate through the narrows.

What are the strait's two prevailing winds called?

The Levante blows from Africa in the east, the Poniente from the Atlantic in the west.

The 1920s Atlantropa project proposed doing what to the strait?

It would have devastated the local climate and altered the West African monsoon.

Who was the first known person to swim across the strait, in April 1928?

It took her 12 hours 50 minutes on her sixth attempt.

The tunnel proposed in 2003 would link Cape Malabata near Tangier with which Spanish point?

The idea dates back to a 1979 declaration signed by the kings of Spain and Morocco.

Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, ships crossing the strait do so under what regime?

It gives vessels and aircraft freedom of navigation and overflight for continuous transit.

Which tiny disputed islet in the strait is claimed by both Spain and Morocco?

Its name means Parsley Island.

The Spanish Nationalist "Convoy de la Victoria" crossed the strait in August 1936 to do what?

It broke the Republican navy's blockade with at least 2,500 men.

Roughly what share of the world's seaborne trade passes through the strait?

That traffic made Gibraltar a vital Royal Navy base in the Napoleonic Wars and World War II.

Which Berber dynasty founded Gibraltar as a permanent settlement with a castle in 1160?

Sultan Abd al-Mu'min named it Medinat al-Fath, 'City of the Victory'; the Moorish Castle's Tower of Homage still stands.

Which Phoenician-founded town near San Roque was the area's main settlement from about 950 BC?

The Phoenicians also used Gorham's Cave on the Rock as a shrine, as did the Carthaginians and Romans after them.

How many Spanish inhabitants stayed in Gibraltar after the 1704 Anglo-Dutch capture?

Of 4,000 to 5,000 residents, nearly everyone left; those who remained were mostly neutral Genoese traders.

What was the codename of the frustrated German plan to seize Gibraltar in World War II?

Franco's reluctance to let German troops cross Spanish soil scuppered it.

Where was the main destination for Gibraltar's civilians evacuated during World War II?

Others went to Morocco, Madeira and a purpose-built Gibraltar Camp in Jamaica.

What percentage of Gibraltarians rejected shared British-Spanish sovereignty in the 2002 referendum?

A 1967 vote had likewise overwhelmingly backed staying British.

In which year was the Gibraltar-Spain border fully reopened after Franco's closure?

It was partially reopened in 1982, with full reopening coming just before Spain joined the European Community.

Roughly how many Barbary macaques live in the Upper Rock nature reserve?

Three-quarters of the world's population of the species live in Morocco's Middle Atlas mountains.