The Kingdom of Spain includes two cities and several additional outposts on the north coast of Morocco. Ceuta is in the north of Morocco directly opposite Gibraltar. The city was occupied by Portugal in 1415 but it has been under Spanish control since Portugal and Spain separated in 1640. Melilla is in the northeastern corner of Morocco near the Algerian border. Melilla has been Spanish since 1497. These two cities were the first -- and are now the last -- European possessions on the African mainland. Ceuta and Melilla have the status of autonomous cities within Spain. In addition to the two cities Spain administers as federal territories several small islands of the Mediterranean near the coast of Morocco, known collectively as the plazas menores de soberanía (lesser places of sovereignty). All these territories are claimed by Morocco. The word for a lighthouse is faro in Spanish but its use is generally restricted to the larger coastal light stations. Smaller lighthouses are called balizas (beacons). In Spanish isla is an island, cabo is a cape, punta is a promontory or point of land, péñon is a rock, arrecife is a reef, bahía is a bay, ría is an estuary or inlet, estrecho is a strait, río is a river, and puerto is a port or harbor. The navigational lights in Spain are the responsibility of the national port authority, Puertos del Estado, but most of them are operated and maintained by regional port authorities. The Comisión de Faros, founded in 1842 to build and maintain Spanish lighthouses, is now an advisory panel. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. ES numbers are from the Spanish national list of lights, Libro de Faros. Admiralty numbers are from volume E of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 113.
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Eastern Andalusia | Surrounding: Northeastern Morocco | West: Northwestern Morocco
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Posted August 10, 2005. Checked and revised June 2, 2024. Lighthouses: 6. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.