Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera – a short history of the world’s smallest national border

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2 years ago Robin

Spain has almost 2000 kilometers of land borders with Portugal and France, but also much smaller borders with countries like Andorra, the United Kingdom, more precisely Gibraltar, and the African nation of Morocco.
It is with the latter that Spain shares the smallest land border in the world, an 85-meter-long stretch of land linking a rock about 19,000 square meters in size to the Moroccan coast, off the coast of Málaga, on a hill.
Historically, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera has belonged to Spain constantly since 1564 when it was conquered by Admiral Pedro de Estopiñán, and although Morocco has repeatedly laid claim to it, Spain has never agreed to return the land and actually has troops stationed there to enforce Spanish rule.
This curious corner is located on the coast of Morocco, between Ceuta and Melilla, about two hundred kilometers from one and the other autonomous city. It was an important space for Spain in past centuries. It was first occupied in July 1508, although it was some time before the Spanish army, by order of Philip II, took full control.

This area is one of the so-called “places of sovereignty” that Spain has in North Africa, along with Ceuta, Melilla, the Peñón de Alhucemas, the Chafarinas Islands and the Isla de Perejil, and Its legal status is that of non-autonomous territories under Spanish administration.
Interestingly, this barren rock was an island until 1930, when an earthquake of 7 degrees occurred, with epicenter in Fez, which shook the Moroccan coast, in front of which was the islet. The tremor was of such intensity that it moved the African Plate and the Iberian Subplate, producing a small alteration in the coastline.
This seismic movement also caused sands to be deposited between the rock and the African continent. Thus they were united and the smallest border in the world was formed.
Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera is currently only inhabited by Spanish troops in charge of surveillance and defense.
Soldiers are rotated every month and live in modest facilities, without running water or electricity, who rely solely on Spanish Navy ships that deliver supplies on a regular basis.
Fun fact, this is the last Spanish territory to suffer an invasion by agents of a foreign power.
It was 2012 when a group of seven people belonging to an organization known as the Coordination Committee for the Liberation of Ceuta and Melilla snuck onto the rock and replaced the Spanish flag with the Moroccan one. The invasion only lasted a few minutes, as Spanish troops quickly took down the foreign flag and arrested the perpetrators, and this was technically counted as an actual invasion.
Either way, this land border was officially recognized as the smallest in the world.