The 14 km that Spain and Morocco have fought over since 711 | WHO OWNS THE STRAIT? Part 1

History Onion · Part 1 The Crossing · 2:58

On 30 July 2026 about fifty thousand people crossed from Morocco into the Spanish city of Ceuta in a single day. At least eighty-three died. Spain called it an attack on its territorial integrity; Morocco calls Ceuta occupied land and dates that claim to the year 711. That year, a Berber commander named Tariq ibn Ziyad sailed from Ceuta with about seven thousand men and ended a kingdom that had ruled Spain for three centuries. He landed under a limestone rock his men called Jabal Tariq — Tariq's mountain — which is why we call it Gibraltar. But the version of that story most people know is a legend. The burning ships, the betrayed count of Ceuta, his daughter's revenge — none of it appears in the earliest surviving account, written about forty years later by a Christian living under Muslim rule. His explanation is much flatter, and much more interesting. A note on names: Arabic and Latin names are given in their most widely used English forms (Tariq ibn Ziyad, Musa ibn Nusayr, Roderic). Spellings vary between traditions.