Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera

Pirates, Ottomans and five centuries of Spanish stubbornness

Spain first seized this rocky outcrop in 1508 to disrupt Barbary pirates who had been raiding the southern Iberian coast. It lost it to a Moroccan attack in 1522, watched it pass to Ottoman hands in 1554, and retook it in 1564 after a sharp battle that left 150 Ottoman soldiers dead. Since then, despite sieges in 1680, 1701, 1755, 1781 and 1790, Spain has never let go. The Spanish Congress even considered abandoning it in 1871 on the grounds that it had outlived its military purpose, then decided against it. Some things are kept simply because they are there.

An island that stopped being an island

For most of its history, the peñón was a true island, separated from the Moroccan shore by a narrow channel of sea. In 1930, a violent storm deposited enough sand in that channel to connect rock to continent, turning an island into a peninsula and creating the land border that exists today. The territory covers just 1.9 hectares of steep rock, rising to roughly 87 metres, with enough space for a helipad, a garrison, a volleyball court and very little else.

You cannot visit

This is an active military installation with no civilian population, no tourism infrastructure, and no public access. Entry is restricted to Spanish armed forces personnel, who are resupplied by helicopter and occasional naval vessel. Morocco claims the territory and disputes Spanish sovereignty, a position shared by no state that has recognised the outcome. The closest a visitor can get is the Moroccan fishing village of Bades, on the other side of the blue rope, where you can look across at the rock and contemplate what five centuries of strategic determination looks like from a distance.