After visiting Melilla several years ago, we recently also visited the other one, an hourlong drive from Tangier, Morocco. With a population of around 83,000, it grew from the settlement of Abyla, founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BCE and then conquered in 40 CE by the Romans (who named it Septum, for its seven hills and from which the name Ceuta derives), the Byzantines in 534, the Umayyad Caliphate in 711 (to this day, roughly half the population is Muslim), and the Portuguese in 1415, before finally being ceded to Spain in 1580 when it was united with Portugal under a single monarchy. These days it has the status of autonomous city Some compare it to Gibraltar, but two major differences are that it´s not a colony but rather an integral part of Spain, and unlike the previous relationship of Gibraltar with Spain, Ceuta was never part of the Kingdom of Morocco.

The city is located on a narrow isthmus, with most buildings along a bay on the lowlands (behind us here) and seven hills, the highest of which (669 feet) is Mount Hacho, from which we took this photo.