History of Ceuta
Ceuta's strategic location on the northernmost tip of Morocco (on the Strait of Gibraltar) has made it the crucial waypoint of many a culture's trade and military ventures— beginning with the Carthaginians in the 5th century BC. It wasn't until the Romans took control in about 42 A.D., however, that the port city (named Septem at the time) took on an almost exclusive military purpose. Approximately 400 years later, the Vandals ousted the Romans for control, and later it fell to the Visigoths of Spain or to the Byzantines. In 710 A.D., as Muslim invaders approached the city, its Visigothic governor Julian (also described as "king of the Ghomara") changed sides and urged them to invade Spain (for personal reasons, according to the Arab chroniclers; the Visigothic King Roderic is said to have mistreated his daughter). Under the leadership of Berber general Tariq ibn Ziyad, Ceuta was used as a prime staging ground for an assault on Visigoth-ruled Spain soon after.
After Julian's death, the Arabs took direct control of the city; this was resented by the surrounding indigenous Berber tribes, who destroyed it in a Kharijite rebellion led by Maysara al-Haqir in 740. It lay waste until refounded in the 9th century by Majakas, chief of the Majkasa Berber tribe, who started the short-lived dynasty of the Banu Isam. Under his great-grandson, they paid allegiance to the Idrisids (briefly); the dynasty finally ended when he abdicated in favor of the Umayyad Caliph Abd ar-Rahman III an-Nasir in 931. Chaos ensued with the fall of the Umayyad caliphate, but eventually it was taken over by the Almoravids in 1084, and again used as a base from which to invade Spain. They were succeeded by the Almohads in 1147, who ruled it, apart from Ibn Hud's rebellion of 1232, until the Hafsids took it in 1242. The Hafsids' influence in the west rapidly waned, and the city expelled them in 1249; after this, it went through a period of political instability, ended when the Marinids took it over in 1309.
A century later, in 1415, Ceuta was taken by the Portuguese under the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator. The primary aim of the conquest was to expel Muslim influence from the area and further promote Christianity. In a Lisbon peace treaty (January 1, 1668) Don Afonso VI of Portugal ceded the area of Ceuta to Carlos II of Spain.
In the modern era, Ceuta is known for its cosmopolitan nature and unique European influence -- all of which have increased tourism to the area.
Ceuta has also been called the African Pillar of Hercules.
