This is roughly the view that the Spanish would have seen as they lay siege to Gibraltar. The British carved miles and miles of tunnels through the rock in their efforts to keep the Spanish at bay.

Years of siege for what? A sweaty rock that eventually turned out to be an other-worldly pit of a demi-country.

Unfortunately this shot doesn't show how crowded, dirty, noisy, and downright nasty the city really is. It's really just a grimy old port town with an almost comically misplaced British motif.

The concrete area is a cistern for drinking water. The territory was made as self-sufficient as possible.

That's Morocco in the haze on the left side of the frame. Spain is on the right side, and slightly less hazy.

All of the foreground is, of course, Gibraltar.

This warning was with good reason-- these are some wild, mean and tourist-preying monkeys.

(I shot this with a 300mm lens, and then cropped the scan heavily. I didn't see any reason to get any closer.)

And if you arrive on foot you get to walk across the active runway. Pretty cool, all things considered.

A few more pictures of Gibraltar.