Description
Jebel Musa, named, according to the 14th-century Berber Muslim geographer Ibn Battuta, to honour Musa bin Nusayr, to whom the conqueror of Andalusia Tariq ibn Ziyad owed fealty, was known to the ancient Greeks as Mount Abyla or to Romans as Columna. Together with the Rock of Gibraltar to the north, it is generally identified as one of the Pillars of Hercules
The pillars of Hercules arose from one of his twelve labours. Earlier, Perseus defeated the Titan Atlas by showing him the head of the Gorgon. Atlas was petrified; his hair became a forest and his shoulders became cliffs. Later, Hercules was directed to get the Cattle of Geryon and deliver them to Eurystheus. Hercules' way was blocked by the mountain that Perseus had created; to clear a way, he used his mace to split the mountain in half, one part becoming the Rock of Gibraltar and the other becoming a mountain in Morocco. According to the legend this split in the mountain created a sea link between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. This link was the Strait of Gibraltar.
Jebel Musa is 842 metres (2,762 ft) high. To the north, across the Strait of Gibraltar, lie Spain and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. To the east is Ceuta, a Spanish exclave, and to the west and south is Morocco. By road, the mountain is about 22 kilometres (14 mi) west of Ceuta and about 72 kilometres (45 mi) east of Tangier.
Jebel Musa is opposite the Rock of Gibraltar at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. It is an important landmark in the region of Tangier-Tetouan on the north coast of Morocco. The coastlines around the mountain and the Rock of Gibraltar show evidence of having had varying sea levels through the ages. These highstands are at 120-130 metres; 80 to 90 metres; 40 to 60 metres and from 0 to 25 metres above the present sea level.
In Ceuta, around the town of Benzú, the mountain is known as Dead Woman, because from that direction it resembles a woman on her back.
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