The Gibraltar peninsula, located at the far southern end of Iberia, has great strategic importance as a result of its position by the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. It has repeatedly been contested between European and North African powers and has endured fourteen sieges since it was first settled in the 11th century. The peninsula's occupants – Moors, Spanish, and British – have built successive layers of fortifications and defences including walls, bastions, casemates, gun batteries, magazines, tunnels and galleries. At their peak in 1865, the fortifications housed around 681 guns mounted in 110 batteries and positions, guarding all land and sea approaches to Gibraltar. The fortifications continued to be in military use until as late as the 1970s and by the time tunnelling ceased in the late 1960s, over 34 miles (55 km) of galleries had been dug in an area of only 2.6 square miles (6.7 km²).

Gibraltar's fortifications are clustered in three main areas. The densest fortifications are in the area where historically Gibraltar was under the most threat – at the north end of the peninsula, the North Front, facing the isthmus with Spain. Another group of fortifications guards the town and the harbour, referred to as the West Side. The southern end of the town is guarded by the South Land Front. Few fortifications exist on the east side, as the sheer cliff of the Rock of Gibraltar is a virtually impassable obstacle. Further fortifications occupy the plateaus of Windmill Hill and Europa Point at the southern end of the peninsula. Lookout posts and batteries on the summits of the Rock provide a 360° view across the Strait and far into Spain. Although Gibraltar is now largely demilitarised, many of the fortifications are still intact and some, such as the Great Siege Tunnels and the Charles V Wall – where many of Gibraltar's population of Barbary macaques live – have become tourist attractions. (Full article...)

Main Street

“	Well, Gibraltar is a place which you either love or hate. I quite like it. It's a rock, that is essentially what it is. It's a British colony.	”
— Nigel Short, British chess player.

Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Leake (4 July 1656 – 21 August 1720) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Texel during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. He then distinguished himself when he led the convoy that broke the barricading boom at Culmore Fort thereby lifting the siege of Derry during the Williamite War in Ireland. As a captain he saw action in some of the heaviest fighting (70 of his men were killed) at the Battle of Barfleur and was also involved in a successful attack on the French ships at the Battle of La Hogue during the Nine Years' War.

Leake went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Newfoundland and then, as a flag officer, served as Second-in-Command to Admiral George Rooke at the Capture of Gibraltar and he commanded the vanguard in the Battle of Málaga during the War of the Spanish Succession. He later returned to Gibraltar with a combined English, Dutch and Portuguese force of 35 ships and defeated Baron de Pointis at the Battle of Cabrita Point. (Full article...)

• ... that Dorothy Ellicott was the first woman to be elected to two different Gibraltar Councils and was posthumously awarded the Gibraltar Medallion of Honour on Gibraltar National Day 2008?
• ... that in 1939, excavations beneath John Mackintosh Square in Gibraltar for the construction of an air-raid shelter revealed no signs of any foundations, suggesting it has always been an open square?
• ... that capital punishment in Gibraltar was last enforced in 1944 when British hangman Albert Pierrepoint travelled undercover to the territory to hang two young Spanish spies? (25 July 2012, 5,697 views)
• ... that the Gibraltar Museum houses the remains of a 14th-century Moorish bath house, once the private baths of the Governor of Gibraltar during the Marinid dynasty? (26 July 2012, 2,222 views)
• ... that the Europa Point Lighthouse at Gibraltar is the only lighthouse operated by Trinity House on continental Europe outside the United Kingdom? (27 July 2012, 4,122 views)
• ... that Giovanni Battista Calvi was an Italian military engineer who worked on many important Spanish defensive projects in the 1500s, to include those in the now British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar?

Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Cleanup : Economy of Gibraltar, Operation Flavius Expand : Llanito, History of the Maltese in Gibraltar, Roman Catholicism in Gibraltar Photo : Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in Gibraltar Update : Demographics of Gibraltar, History of Gibraltar Verify : Pillars of Hercules, Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party Wikify : Demographics of Gibraltar, Death on the Rock

See also

• List of requested Gibraltar-related articles

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