Return to Gibraltar photos

The Rock of Gibraltar was a fortress long before it was discovered by Prudential. It guards one of the major straits in the world, and so has been coveted by many nations over the centuries. At present, it is British territory, even though it is on the Spanish mainland. The international border is fully guarded. (Because of the Schengen Treaty, most European Community nations do not stamp passports. Thus, Jerry’s new passport (1997) was blank, even though he has carried it in several European countries. As we were preparing to leave the rock and re-enter Spain, Spanish guards—apparently not too bright—wondered aloud why the passport was "empty" and detained us for about 5 minutes until they just gave up! Don’s passport had a student visa but showed no actual travel. But we made it.)

The rock shows a history of many fortifications over the centuries. There is also an extensive cave (commercialized) in the rock. The monkeys shown here are half-tame, and are probably brought down to this area just for tourists. They know where to eat well! The water views are the harbor, not the Straits, and the land opposite is Spain, not Morocco.

The bullring is not at Gibraltar, but in the beautiful mountain town of Ronda, which shows record of habitation as early as 9,000 BC. Today, the town of 30,000 people is situated on both sides of a dramatic gorge (over 300m deep) called "el Tajo"; the gorge is spanned by three bridges: one Roman, one Moorish, and the "new bridge" built in 1485! The bullring is debatably the largest in Spain, and one of the few (if not the only) covered ring. (One has to be careful—two rings were described to us as the largest in Spain.)