History and Mythology:
Ceuta is not only a city but a small area formed by a peninsula in a piece of Africa. It sits on the northwest coast of Africa, forming a small bay and is separated from Europe by the Straits of Gibraltar. The passage of numerous civilizations and people, Ceuta is Spain, on the African continent, and as such is linked to its history.
It shares the Spanish culture and is a passage from north to south for a number of communities.
The Mythology of Ceuta, talks about a hero: the son of Zeus and Alcmene, with an extraordinary strength. His name is Melkar (for the Phoenicians) or Hercules (for the Greeks). Hercules, who using a “clava” (one meter long club that was used as a weapon) with a powerful force that the gods had endowed to him, opened the gap that separated the two continents.
This split Europe and Africa one aside the other, leaving the two geographic landmarks as a memory: the Pillars of Hercules, which signal the end of the known world and give way to the unknown: The Dark Sea. What is now called The Rock of Gibraltar and Mount Hacho in the city of Ceuta were, in mythology called Calpe and Abyla, the Pillars of Hercules.
The massif that modern maps call the Dead Woman is also part of the mythology of the city of Ceuta.
The massif that modern maps call the Dead Woman is also part of the mythology of the city of Ceuta.
Looking East, which today is Benzú Bay, there is a massif that is none other than Atlanta, who was turned into stone by the gods, and who sleeps in his eternal sleep as the waves of the ocean that bears his name bathe his feet. Modern geography calls our petrified hero Jebel Musa. The island Ogygia is at his feet and emerges from the waves. Homer tells us that "there is an island in the middle of the sea inhabited by Calipso, goddess of beautiful fatal hair, daughter of Atlanta, with whom no mortal man or God lives… ". Some authors have identified this island as the island of Parsley.
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