Gibraltar: The Top of the Rock

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The mythical pillar of Hercules, known as “The Rock”, is fascinating for both its unique natural features and its multicultural peculiarities. Throughout history Gibraltar has been an anomaly where cultures, religions, languages and customs meet and mix. Walk its charming streets today and you will hear a unique English enlivened by an Andalusian accent and vocabulary. 

The foremost image of Gibraltar is its British military function as a great fortress. But a trip to the top, which nowadays has a greater role as a natural reserve, reveals a distinct reality. These places and landscapes, so close to the Strait and the streets, remain indifferent to the changing tides of political history, and are undeniably Mediterranean. 

Admiring the astonishing view from the top of the rock, Gibraltar’s allure and geopolitical history is clear. From here the eye can control the port city of Algeciras, the Mediterranean coastline, and the mountain ranges of Cadiz and Malaga provinces. In the other direction lays the Strait and the African coast with Gibraltar’s twin pillar, the Moroccan mountain Jebel Moussa, which for centuries marked the limits of the known world and was every sailor’s last frontier. 

But if you still aren’t convinced of Gibraltar’s singular character, much of this route we will be accompanied by the entertaining monkeys of Gibraltar, the Barbary Macaque. 


Length

13 km

Highest point

412 m

Elevation gain

407 m

Difficulty

medium/high

Duration

full day

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