Gibraltar Oct 28

We arrived at Gibraltar on Oct 27, stayed all day on Oct 28 (which was the Sabbath) and left the morning of Oct 29. I didn't take many pictures (Beth took some on the afternoon of the 27th).

The first image is what the Rock of Gibraltar (about 1400' at the peak) looks like as you approach it. The approach is through a Spanish passport point then to the British passport point then over a bridge and across the airfield to the city at the base of the mountain. 

The second image show me with a monkey (I'm the one with the hat). This was taken by Beth on the 27th just before we checked into the hotel.

Gibraltar has the only wild monkey colony in Europe. The monkeys probably were brought with the Moorish conquest in the 8th century (Gibraltar is named for 'Mountain of Tariq or Jebal Tariq, as Tariq ibn Zarid was the commander of the force that captured this island in 711). 

Gibraltar was conquered by Christian forces in 1464 after about two hundred years in which possession went back and forth between Moslem and Christian Kings. England gained possession of it in 1704 as part of the War of the Spanish Succession  (3rd image from wikipedia). The top of the image is the NW- the monkey colony is on the left side of the middle mountain about a third up the side). 

From the southern point of Gibraltar, the coast of Africa is visible on most days. However, as you can see on the map (from Vidiani.com), Gibraltar is not the southernmost point of Spain.

Gibraltar has one of the mildest climates in Europe with the mean temperature in the 50s in winter and the 70s in the summer. This is mostly because the Atlantic current that flows into the Mediterranean through the strait of Gibraltar all year around is about 60F all year around. 
 
The next image is of a street near the border with Spain that has a statue of Queen Victoria. This was taken on the 29th by me.






The penultimate image (not counting the map) is of our group as we go back through passport control in Spain as we left Gibraltar on the 29th. We had to take our stuff off the bus to do this since the Spanish won't come on a bus for some reason (I think it is just to intentionally annoy people). 

A brief note on the early 18th century:  As noted above, Great Britain took wartime possession of Gibraltar in 1704.  In this war, England, the Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire were on one side with a Spanish faction. On the other side was a Spanish faction and France (see map which is from wikipedia). The 1713 Treaty of Ultrect formally ended hostilities in this war.  One clause in the 1713 Treaty forbade the residence of Jews and Moors in the town of Gibraltar. Between 1704 and 1713 Jews and Moors had come to Gibraltar. In 1727, Spain declared that Britain had abrogated the treaty (for a lot of reasons, not just the Jewish residences) and laid siege to Gibraltar. The siege failed. In 1729 Britain signed a commercial treaty with Morocco expressly allowing all the Sultan's subjects (including Jews and Muslims) to reside in Gibraltar.  There was no amended Treaty of Ultrect as the Spanish had declared it abrogated.

From the President of one of the local synagogues we heard two stories about the 1713-1727 period. I have not been able to confirm either of them. 

In one story, the Spanish became aware of Jewish residence on Gibraltar when a Spanish bishop was visiting Gibraltar and inquired as to why people were dressed up. Per the story, the bishop was told that because it was Saturday, the Jews were dressed up for Sabbath (apparently, in this story, the Moors were not noticed by the bishop) and subsequently the bishop told his government which complained to the British crown. 

In the other story, subsequent to the Spanish complaint, the British foreign office wrote to the Governor of Gibraltar requiring him to expel the Jews. 

Subsequently to that, the Governor had the Jews board a boat which sailed into the harbor and the Governor then wrote to the foreign office that he had, per requirement, expelled the Jews. The ship then sailed back to Gibraltar (the image shows the harbor in the late 1800s after the British had built a long fortified pier from the harbor - the last image is from gibraltar-intro.blogspot.com). The fortified pier in the image no longer exists.