n.
British colony, Mediterranean coast of southern Spain.
Area: 2.25 sq mi (5.8 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 27,700. The site of a British air and naval base that guards the Strait of Gibraltar , it occupies a narrow peninsula 3 mi (5 km) long and 0.75 mi (1.2 km) wide, known as the Rock. It appears from the east as a series of sheer, inaccessible cliffs, which makes it strategically important. The Moors held Gibraltar from 711 to 1501, when it was annexed by Spain. Captured by the British in 1704, it became a British crown colony in 1830. It was an important port in World Wars I and II. The sovereignty of the territory has remained a source of constant friction between the United Kingdom and Spain, though residents voted in 1967 to remain part of Britain. Spain lifted its border blockade in the mid-1980s. Perhaps its most famous residents are the Barbary macaques, who occupy many of Gibraltar's caves and are Europe's only free-living monkeys.
The Rock of Gibraltar
Hans Huber