Yesterday morning, I was still in Morocco. By the end of the day, I was standing in Algeciras, Spain, with my bicycle, looking across the Bay of Algeciras toward the Rock of Gibraltar. From the Moroccan coast, I could already see the mountains of Spain. As the ferry crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, the Rock came into view.
My first thought was: That's a lot bigger than I expected. We call it a rock, but it looks more like a mountain. Even the bay was much larger than I had imagined.
I had crossed from Africa to Europe and arrived on the Iberian Peninsula, the large peninsula in southwestern Europe occupied mainly by Spain and Portugal. Look at a map. Africa and Europe are enormous continents, but here they almost touch.
What would you think if you could stand in Africa and see Europe across the water?
Thousands of years ago, ancient Greek and Roman writers called the mountains on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar the Pillars of Hercules. According to legend, Hercules created the passage between the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. For ancient sailors, these mountains marked the entrance to the enormous and mysterious Atlantic.
Imagine sailing through here 2,000 years ago. No GPS.
