Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera

Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (حجر بديس) is a Spanish exclave and rocky tidal island in the western Mediterranean Sea connected to the Moroccan shore by a sandy isthmus. It is also connected to a smaller islet to the east, La Isleta, by a rocky isthmus. The tidal island was named  (Rock of Badis) and was connected to the town of Badis.

Vélez de la Gomera, along with La Isleta, is a premodern overseas possession known as a plaza de soberanía. It is administered by the Spanish central government and has a population consisting only of a small number of Spanish military personnel.

Its border with Morocco is 80 m long, making it one of the shortest international borders in the world.

Geography


Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera is located 119 km southeast of Ceuta. It was a natural island in the Alboran Sea until 1930, when a huge thunderstorm washed large quantities of sand into the short channel between the island and the African continent. The channel was turned into a tombolo and the island became a peninsula, connected to the Moroccan coast by an 85 m long sandy isthmus, which is the world's shortest single land-border segment. With a length of 400 m northwest-southeast and a width of up to 100 m, it covers about 1.9 ha (4¾ acres).

History


Portugal and Spain passed an agreement in 1496 in which they effectively established their zones of influence on the North African coast. As a result, Spain could occupy territory only east of Peñón de Vélez. This restriction ended with the Iberian Union of Portugal and Spain in 1580 under Philip II after the 1578 Battle of Alcácer Quibir, when Spain started to take direct actions in Morocco, as in the occupation of Larache.

In 1508, Spain launched a successful expedition under the command of Pedro Navarro to take the peñón located near Badis, held by pirates who were constantly attacking and looting the coast of southern Spain.

In 1522, Spain lost the peñón to a Moroccan Berber attack that resulted in the deaths of the entire Spanish garrison. Ali Abu Hassun, the new Wattasid ruler of Morocco in 1554, then gave the peñón to the Ottoman troops who had assisted him in gaining the throne.

The Ottomans used it as a base for corsairs operating in the region of the Strait of Gibraltar. The Sa'di sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib was alarmed by this activity, fearing that the Ottomans might use the town of Badis as a base from which to undertake the conquest of Morocco. In 1564, he forced the Moroccans to evacuate the town and the peñón, which he handed over to the Spaniards. The Moroccan population retired to the kasbah of Senada.

In 2012, the territory was briefly assaulted by seven Moroccan activists belonging to the Committee for the Liberation of Ceuta and Melilla, whose leader was Yahya Yahya.

Government
Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera is governed by direct rule from Madrid.

Transportation
The territory is reached primarily by helicopter via a helipad located on the upper sections. A landing area is located on the south end near the land entrance to Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera.