Rock of Gibraltar
Rock of Gibraltar | |
---|---|
Highest point | |
Elevation | 426 m (1,398 ft) |
Prominence | 423 m (1,388 ft)[1] |
Coordinates | 36°07′28.1″N 05°20′35.2″W / 36.124472°N 5.343111°W[2] |
Geography | |
Location | Betic Cordillera |
Geology | |
Age of rock | Jurassic |
Climbing | |
Easiest route | Gibraltar Cable Car, Road, Hike |
The Rock of Gibraltar (from the Arabic name Jabal Ṭāriq جبل طارق, meaning "Mountain of Tariq") is a highly strategic monolithic limestone mountain 426 m (1,398 ft) high dominating the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. It is situated near the end of a narrow 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) long promontory stretching due south into the Mediterranean Sea and is located within the British territory of Gibraltar, and is 27 km north-east of Tarifa, Spain, the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.[3] The rock serves as an impregnable fortress and contains a labyrinthine network of man-made tunnels known as the Tunnels of Gibraltar. Most of the Rock's upper area comprises a nature reserve which is home to about 300 Barbary macaques. It is a major tourist attraction.
The Rock of Gibraltar, the northernmost of the two historic
Geology
The Rock of Gibraltar is a monolithic promontory. The Main Ridge has a sharp crest with peaks over 400 m above sea level, formed by Early Jurassic limestones and dolomites.[5] It is a deeply eroded and highly faulted limb of an overturned fold. The sedimentary strata composing the Rock of Gibraltar are overturned, with the oldest strata overlying the youngest strata. These strata are the Catalan Bay Shale Formation (youngest), Gibraltar Limestone, Little Bay Shale Formation (oldest), and Dockyard Shale Formation (age unknown). These strata are noticeably faulted and deformed.[6]
Predominantly of
The Gibraltar limestone consists of greyish-white or pale-gray compact, and sometime finely crystalline, medium to thick bedded limestones and
The Little Bay and Dockyard shale formations form a very minor part of the Rock of Gibraltar. The Little Bay Shale Formation consists of dark bluish-gray, unfossiliferous shale, which is interbedded with thin layers of grit, mudstone, and limestone. It predates the Gibraltar limestone. The Dockyard Shale Formation is an undescribed variegated shale of unknown age that lies buried beneath the Gibraltar's dockyard and coastal protection structures.[6]
Although these geological formations were deposited during the early part of the Jurassic
Today, the Rock of Gibraltar forms a peninsula jutting out into the Strait of Gibraltar from the southern coast of
Calcite, the mineral that makes up limestone, dissolves slowly in rainwater. Over time, this process can form caves. For this reason the Rock of Gibraltar contains over 100 caves. St. Michael's Cave, located halfway up the western slope of the Rock, is the most prominent and is a popular tourist attraction.
Fossils of Neanderthals have been found at several sites in Gibraltar. In 1848, a Neanderthal woman's skull was found at Forbes' Quarry, located on the north face of the Rock. However, its significance was not recognized until after the 1856 discovery of the type specimen in the Neander Valley. Excavations in Gorham's Cave, located near sea level on the eastern side of the Rock, found evidence it was used by Neanderthals, and plant and animal remains in the cave gave evidence of Neanderthals' highly varied diet.[8]
Eastern Face
The Eastern Face of the Rock comprises steep cliffs and scree slopes descending to the sea, allowing little space for human habitation. In modern times a road (Sir Herbert Miles Road, named after Lieutenant General Sir Herbert Miles, Governor of Gibraltar 1913-1918) has been cut into the shore, its southernmost part being through a tunnel (Dudley Ward Way, named after Sir Alfred Dudley Ward, Governor of Gibraltar 1962-1965) in the rock. Towards the south-east end of the Rock close to sea-level is located Gorham's Cave, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Fortification
Moorish Castle
The Moorish Castle is a relic of
The principal building that remains is the
Galleries
A unique feature of the Rock is its system of underground passages, known as the Galleries or the Great Siege Tunnels.
The first of these was dug towards the end of the Great Siege of Gibraltar, which lasted from 1779 to 1783. General Elliot, afterwards Lord Heathfield, who commanded the garrison throughout the siege, was anxious to bring flanking fire on the Spanish batteries in the plain below the North face of the Rock. On the suggestion of Sergeant-Major Henry Ince of the Royal Engineers, he had a tunnel bored from a point above Willis's Battery to communicate with the Notch, a natural projection from the North face. The plan was to mount a battery there. There was no intention at first of making embrasures in this tunnel, but an opening was found necessary for ventilation; as soon as it had been made a gun was mounted in it. By the end of the siege, the British had constructed six such embrasures, and mounted four guns.
The Galleries, which tourists may visit, were a later development of the same idea and were finished in 1797. They consist of a whole system of halls, embrasures, and passages, of a total length of nearly 304 m (997 ft). From them, one may see a series of unique views of the Bay of Gibraltar, the isthmus, and Spain.
Second World War onwards
When World War II broke out in 1939, the authorities evacuated the civilian population to Morocco, the United Kingdom, Jamaica, and Madeira so that the military could fortify Gibraltar against a possible German attack. By 1942 there were over 30,000 British soldiers, sailors, and airmen on the Rock. They expanded the tunnel system and made the Rock a keystone in the defence of shipping routes to the Mediterranean.
In February 1997, it was revealed the British had a secret plan called Operation Tracer to conceal servicemen in tunnels beneath the Rock in case the Germans captured it. The team in the rock would have radio equipment with which to report enemy movements. A six-man team waited undercover at Gibraltar for two and a half years. The Germans never got close to capturing the rock and so the men were never sealed inside. The team was disbanded to resume civilian life when the war ended.
Sayings
The saying "solid as the Rock of Gibraltar" is used to describe an entity that is very safe or firm.[9]
The motto of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment and Gibraltar itself is Nulli Expugnabilis Hosti (Latin for "No Enemy Shall Expel Us").
Nature reserve
Approximately 40% of Gibraltar's land area was declared a nature reserve in 1993.
Flora and fauna
The flora and fauna of the Gibraltar Nature Reserve are of
Birds
The Rock of Gibraltar, at the head of the Strait, is a prominent headland, which accumulates migrating birds during the passage periods. The vegetation on the Rock, unique in southern Iberia, provides a temporary home for many species of migratory birds that stop to rest and feed before continuing migration for their crossing over the sea and desert. In spring, they return to replenish before continuing their journeys to Western Europe, journeys which may take them as far as Greenland or Russia.[13]
The Rock has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International, because it is a migratory bottleneck, or choke point, for an estimated 250,000 raptors that cross the Strait annually, and because it supports breeding populations of Barbary partridges and lesser kestrels.[14]
See also
- Disputed status of the isthmus between Gibraltar and Spain
- Gibraltar Cable Car
- List of famous rocks
References
- ^ "Rock of Gibraltar, Gibraltar". Peakbagger.com. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
- ^ Google (5 March 2018). "Peak: Highest Point" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
- ^ a b Welcome To The Rock of Gibraltar! by costarsure.com
- ^ a b "Pillars of Hercules". The Gibraltar Museum. Archived from the original on 20 July 2007. Retrieved 14 January 2008.
- ^ Rodríguez Vidal, J.; et al. "Neotectonics and shoreline history of the Rock of Gibraltar, southern Iberia". researchgate.net. Elsevier (2004). Retrieved 23 June 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Rose, E. P. F. & M. S. Rosenbaum (1991). A Field Guide to the Geology of Gibraltar. Gibraltar: The Gilbraltar Museum. p. 192.
- ^ "1El relieve kárstico de Gibraltar como registro morfosedimentario durante el Cuaternario (Mediterráneo occidental)" (PDF). Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Espeleología y Ciencias del Karst (in Spanish): 7. 2002.
- ^ Samuels, Kevin (20 April 2004). "Physical Geology 2004: The Rock of Gibraltar and Surroundings". Earlham College. Archived from the original on 14 August 2009. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
- ^ "the Rock of Gibraltar". Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- ^ Charles Perez & Keith Bensusan (2005). "A Guide to The Upper Rock Nature Reserve" (PDF). The Gibraltar Ornithologicaland Natural History Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 May 2013. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- ^ "DNA solves mystery of Gibraltar's macaques". Gibraltar News Online. 26 April 2005. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
- ^ C. Michael Hogan (19 December 2008). "Barbary Macaque: Macaca sylvanus". Globaltwitcher. Archived from the original on 19 April 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- ^ "What to see". www.gibraltar.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 4 November 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- ^ "Important Bird Areas factsheet: Rock of Gibraltar". BirdLife International. 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- Government of Gibraltar (1931). "Gibraltar". Gibraltar: The Travel Key to the Mediterranean: 5–12.