Not Dwayne Johnson, I am talking about Gibraltar! It’s a tiny British Overseas Territory, self governing on the southern tip of Spain, just a stone’s throw from Morocco and controlling the entrance to the Mediterranean.
The British captured Gibraltar in 1704. Spain formally ceded the peninsula in perpetuity to the British Crown in 1713 in return for British support for Charles V of Spain in the War of Spanish Succession. Subsequent centuries have seen Spain trying to renege on the treaty. In particular during the Franco era in Spain Gibraltar repelled attempted invasions and survived years of birder closures amounting to a siege. The result is a quirky old fashioned British outpost somewhat frozen in time.
Dominating it all is “The Rock”, a 426 metre high limestone monolith.
Getting up the rock traditionally was via cable car but this has been demolished and is being rebuilt with a likely 2028 reopening. The result is a boon for local operators with minibus traffic ams up the narrow roads up the rock.
Legend has it that if there are no Barbary macaques on the rock, British rule very Gibraltar will end. During WW2 the population of apes here dropped to 7! British PM Sir Winston Churchill had hundreds flown over from Morocco.
