Rock of Gibraltar, Limestone promontory in Gibraltar, United Kingdom.
The Rock of Gibraltar is a monolithic limestone promontory 426 m high at the western entrance to the Mediterranean. Its Main Ridge has a sharp crest, with the eastern side dropping in near-vertical cliffs and the western face sloping less steeply above the town. A narrow paved path with a low metal railing runs along part of the ridge.
The Romans called this formation Mons Calpe and regarded it as one of the Pillars of Hercules, marking the western edge of the known world. In 711, Moorish forces seized the peninsula and gave it the name Jabal Tariq, mountain of Tariq, from which Gibraltar derives.
The name Gibraltar comes from Jabal Tariq, the mountain of Tariq ibn Ziyad, the Berber commander who landed here in 711. The upper Rock is a nature reserve where around 300 to 350 Barbary macaques live, the only primates existing in the wild in Europe. Visitors meet them along the paths and at the summit.
Several walking routes lead through the nature reserve to viewpoints, caves, and old military installations. Early morning offers quieter conditions and cooler temperatures for longer walks.
The Tunnels of Gibraltar form a labyrinthine network dug by hand into the limestone, the oldest sections excavated in the final years of the Great Siege of 1779–1783 under General Elliot, later Lord Heathfield, so that guns could be aimed at the Spanish batteries on the plain below the north face.
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