Alboran Island
The Alborán Island is a Spanish islet in the shape of an irregular isosceles triangle and of volcanic origin located in the western part of the Mediterranean Sea, about 55 km north of the Moroccan coast and 85 km south of the province of Almería, Spain. It has been a Spanish possession since 1540, after being seized from the Tunisian corsair Al-Borany in the battle of Alborán. Currently, it belongs to the municipality of Almería and its lighthouse is administered by the port of Almería. The western part of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Cabo de Gata takes its name, receiving the name of the Alborán Sea.
The island, just over 600 meters long, has the islet of La Nube at its narrowest part one hundred meters northeast along with a small rocky area. In the widest part, where its lighthouse is located, it has a small inlet known as the west dock or beach and another on the opposite side known as the levante dock or beach. In the center of the island there is an underground channel called "Cueva de las Morenas" that crosses the island from part to part and is navigable in good weather. Currently, it is inhabited by a detachment of the Spanish Navy and has some buildings in addition to the lighthouse, such as a heliport, a small cemetery or a port.
The area, due to its richness in biodiversity, has been protected by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food as a marine and fishing reserve since 1997. In addition, the island has been declared a Natural Area by the Junta de Andalucía and a special zone protection for birds (ZEPA).
Etymology of the name
The name of the current island is traditionally associated with a Tunisian privateer in the service of the Ottoman sultan, named Mustafa ben Yusuf al Mahmud ed Din (Arabic: مصطفى بن يوسف المحمود الدين). Due to the ferocity of his attacks, Mustafa ben Yusuf was known as Al-Borany, from Turkish: "storm" or "tempest". Having appropriated the islet and installed its base of operations in order to attack the nearby coasts, the island ended up being known as the island of Al-Borany, a name that ended up evolving into the current place name, Alborán, which is used to refer to both the island as the sea that surrounds it. In the Carta Pisana, from the end of the 13th century, this island already appears named as «Arborame».
The island and its equivalent name in Latin "Erroris Insula" appear in the work "Thesaurus geographicus" (1587) by the geographer Abraham Ortelius. In "Stories of the islands of Africa" (1846), the author details that some cartographers have erroneously given the name "Albuzama", confusing the islet with another on the shores of the city of Al Hoceima (cited as "El Mezemah") and the difficulty of finding the correct name in antiquity due to the number of nearby islets and the imprecision of ancient cartography. It also appears in some pre-century work XX, with names like Aboran or Aboram.
History
The island of Alborán in ancient times
Since Antiquity there was a human presence in its vicinity, since in the surroundings of the island, amphoras and anchors have appeared along the commercial routes of the Roman Empire.
It is the Roman geographer Rufo Festo Avieno, in his work Ora Marítima, who mentions an island where a previous civilization built a temple dedicated to the cult of Noctiluca, the mythological Moon. There are authors who possibly identify this island as Alborán.
The island remained uninhabited for a long time, or at least, without great relevance or great vestiges of other times. With the appearance of piracy in the Mediterranean, it was possibly a temporary base for corsairs to attack ships or plunder the nearby coasts. In its vicinity, on October 1, 1540, the battle of the island of Alborán took place, in which the Castilian soldier Bernardino de Mendoza, in command of 10 galleys, defeated a fleet of Barbary corsairs made up of 16 ships and a crew. of more than 2,500 men, under the command of Ali Hamet, who, having left Algiers in August, was returning to port after having sacked Gibraltar. It was one of the first battles of the Spanish Armada and the beginning of the sovereignty of the Spanish monarchy over the island.
The construction and maintenance of the Lighthouse
In his 1845 Geographical-Statistical-Historical Dictionary, Pascual Madoz describes the island: «The terrain is flat, sandy and without any noticeable elevation, covered with undergrowth similar to the one that grows on the seashore: on the The southern part has a surgidero, where smuggler ships usually anchor from 25 to 30 fathoms, and formerly the Barbary corsairs. It is uninhabited and uncultivated; and lacks everything necessary for life."
In the middle of the XIX century, the press reported the discovery of a guano deposit that could have significant commercial and there were news about the intentions to extract and sell the animal substrate. According to a bulletin from the Geological Map Commission of Spain (now the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain), this situation led to the arrival of a mining engineer from the district of Almería to certify whether the rumors were true, however he discovered that the presence of guano was irrelevant in order to obtain some economic return.
In 1869, the construction of the current lighthouse began, which was completed in 1876, with which the stable settlement of the island began by the so-called "torreros" -the personnel in charge of maintaining the lighthouse- and their families. For the supply of water and food, essential on such a small and hostile island, two small docks were built.
The aristocrat Luis Salvador of Austria visited the island and published in Prague an illustrated book in German: Alboran (1898) with faithful reproductions of Alborán. However, he was criticized by some Spanish newspapers such as La Vanguardia for his inaccurate comments and unreal.
In 1907, a daughter of the faristas, Mercedes Martínez Marín, was born on the island, being until now the only person originally from the island. The living conditions of the people on the island were harsh, due to isolation, the scarcity of resources and the difficulty of communications or supplies. The island continued to be inhabited by lighthouse keepers until 1966 when the lighthouse was finally automated.
The island of Alborán has been administered by the Almería City Council since 1833, belonging specifically to the Pescadería-La Chanca district of Almería. On May 9, 1884, by order of King Alfonso XII, the island was assigned to the province of Almeria. The lighthouse —partially ceded to the Navy since October 4, 2006— was previously managed by the port of Malaga and is currently the port of Almería due to its geographical proximity.
In 1910, the civil engineer Francisco Govantes y Marco presented a project to the Almería Public Works headquarters to request the concession for the construction on the island of various buildings and industrial facilities for commercial purposes. A coal warehouse in a place of great maritime traffic, a salting factory for the richness of the fish and an aerial tramway from the island made up of towers, cables and pulleys moved by motors, as well as some houses for the workers. The project never came to fruition.
The military detachment and the protection of biodiversity
At the end of the Spanish Civil War, a small detachment of Marines occupied the island. During the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, the island was inhabited by the military intermittently.
During the Cold War, the island had the presence of Soviet Union fishing boats and the transit of the Soviet navy fleet in the Mediterranean, which worried the United States. On June 19, 1976, the The diplomat with a position as Director General for Eastern Europe, Fernando Olivié, was forced to deny in the note reserved for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the rumor of a Soviet request to formalize a base on the island of Alborán after the opening of relations between Spain and the Soviet Union.
The richness of the sea around Alborán has been the reason for many years of territorial dispute between Spain and Morocco, in addition to the plundering of natural resources. In September 1997, the presence of a military detachment of a dozen people to ensure Spanish sovereignty, monitor maritime traffic and control access to the Strait of Gibraltar. On September 10, 1998, the works described in the document "Actions on the Island of Alborán" began by the state company TRAGSA, In the first place, the logistic support tasks for temporary facilities and equipment were carried out, as well as the recovery of the dilapidated lighthouse, in addition to the dredging and cleaning of the existing dock, in harsh climatic conditions. Subsequently, a fishing refuge was built for the provisioning of the military crew and, in cases of emergency, refuge or maritime shelter for the fishing fleet, something that was initially criticized by ecologists. ists but supported by the fishing sector.
During the incident on the island of Perejil between Spain and Morocco in 2002, the island of Alborán halfway to Melilla where the island is located, its military detachment went unnoticed and had no news of interest despite the proximity of the events and the little military presence on the island.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the island, along with other territories between Spain and the African coast, has suffered the transit of illegal immigration.
Geography
Situation and topography
The island of Alborán is located 88 km south of Adra (Almería) and 56 km from Cabo de Tres Forcas (Nador). The island covers an area of about 71,200 m² (7.12 ha) of rock volcanic. The island constitutes a practically flat platform, a wasteland with a pyriform contour 642 meters long, 265 meters wide and 14 meters high, bordered along its entire perimeter by cliffs between ten and twelve meters high. height. It is an island without relief, but between its cliffs there are just a couple of beaches, one to the east and the other to the west, and there are various covachas or small caves, such as Las Lapas, Pagel and Lobo. Marine. It is badly eroded by the action of the sea and the wind. Near the island is the islet of La Nube.
Geology
The island of Alborán belongs to the Sierra de Alborán, an underwater mountain range of volcanic origin with an estimated age of 20 million years. The area where the island of Alborán is located is part of the primitive Betic-Rifeño massif, that more than 300 million years ago, during the Paleozoic, remained emerged on the western slope of the Tethys Sea, which connected the primitive European and African Continents. The island emerged from the volcanic manifestations that occurred in the area during the alpine folding of the Miocene and Pliocene, which is why it has the same age as the volcanoes of the Betic and Rif mountains, since it belongs to the same volcanic province. It originated over an explosive underwater volcanic caldera, which is the true shape of the volcano.
Located in an important seismic zone where the African plate collides with the Eurasian plate, the epicenters of a good number of earthquakes of different intensity are located in the Alboran Sea. A good example of this is the 2016 Alboran Sea earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.3 MW.
In 1899 a new igneous rock was discovered on the island, with the name of alboranite, in honor of the island of Almería. Other minerals present that appear in the constitution of its sands and rocks are augite, chalcedony, hornblende, magnetite, goethite, hematite or ilmenite.
Climate
The climate of Alborán is of the subtropical desert Mediterranean type, characterized by its dryness and frequent exposure to winds from the west and east, among which those coming from the Sahara stand out, which further accentuate its aridity. However, it is also worth noting the direct influence of the humidity provided by the sea, which determines the sparse vegetation that appears on the surface of the island.
Fauna and flora
The representative flora on the island is scarce and reduced, presenting a total of twelve different botanical species. The small area of the island, the sandy soil and the high atmospheric salinity are limiting factors. Twenty-seven plant species have been cited, including four unique endemisms. Among the island's flora we can find manzanilla gorda or Alborán button (Anacyclus alboranensis), dandelion or Alborán rabaniza (Diplotaxis siettiana) or the most widespread plants on the island, sapero thyme (Frankenia corymbosa) or blue algae (Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum).
The fauna of the island is extremely small, with no presence of mammals, reptiles or amphibians. There are five species of birds, thirteen arthropods, six nematodes and one gastropod. Despite this, the island has three endemic species: two nematodes and one gastropod. During human occupation, chickens, sheep, goats, rabbits, pigs and dogs were introduced, all of which disappeared after the departure of humans. It has also traditionally been home to monk seals (Monachus monachus) now extinct, and a point of great importance for the nesting of the yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) or the Audouin's gull (Larus audouinii). Numerous cetaceans converge in the waters of Alborán in migratory passage, such as the pilot whale (Globicephala melas) or the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).
From a depth of 60 meters there are forests of brown algae (Laminaria ochroleuca) and red coral (Corallium rubrum).
Protected area
After a scientific study commissioned by the General Secretariat for Fisheries to the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, within the framework of a collaboration agreement, the conclusion was to protect the area due to its high biodiversity and fishing richness, and on the other hand, from the Vulnerability against abusive, professional and recreational fishing, derived from the lack of vigilance in recent years in which there has not been a permanent presence as in previous times. The island and its surroundings were declared a marine and fishing reserve by ministerial order of July 31, 1997 (BOE No. 204 of August 26, 1997). The marine reserve extends over the area of external waters corresponding to the funds above 100 meters from the ridge of which the island of Alborán itself is a part, comprising an area of 429 hectares. The fishing reserve, located entirely in foreign waters, includes all of the Spanish jurisdictional waters that circumscribe the island, excluding the marine reserve, with an area of 49,015 hectares. The fishing importance is due to the presence of red shrimp (aristeus antennatus) and fish such as grouper (Epinephelinae), snapper (Pagrus pagrus) i>), redfish (Helicolenus dactylopterus) and rock brotola (Phycis phycis). The General Secretariat of Fisheries is responsible for the monitoring and control of activities in the marine and fishing reserve.
This order was replaced by that of September 8, 1998 (BOE no. 233 of September 24, 1998), which established for the first time the regulation of activities permitted in marine and fishing reserves.
In 2001, the United Nations Organization declared the island and its seabed a Specially Protected Area of importance for the Mediterranean.
Since 2002, it has been a Special Protection Area for Birds (ZEPA) number ES0000336 covering 7.8 hectares.
In 2003, the Parliament of Andalusia unanimously approved the law declaring the "Paraje Natural de Alborán", the islet of La Nube and the waters and sea beds that surround it, making a total of 26,375.44 hectares, of which 7.91 are terrestrial and 26,367.53 marine.
In 2006, it was named a place of community importance, to be declared a special conservation area in 2015, although this declaration was finally annulled in 2017 by a ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia.
Buildings
The Alboran Lighthouse
In 1859, it was decided to build a first or second order lighthouse, eclipse or flash. In 1876, a third-order lighthouse with the appearance of a fixed white light was turned on, illuminating by means of a lamp that consumed olive oil, paraffin and petroleum. Located on a cylindrical masonry tower twenty meters high placed on a building Rectangular and fortified with two semicircular headframes, crenellated and with loopholes for the defense of the lighthouse. The beacon lighthouse had a light range of 10 miles when it became operational. Due to its enormous isolation and the possibility of an assault, it was extraordinarily equipped with a staff of four "keepers" for the maintenance of the lighthouse.
The lighthouse was modernized in 1915 and automated in 1936, although with the arrival of the Spanish civil war it was abandoned from 1937 to 1939. In 1984, the lighthouse was electrified with solar energy and remotely controlled, along with the Peñón lighthouses of Vélez de la Gomera and that of Islas Chafarinas. The lighthouse and its facilities were modernized by the Ministry of the Environment and inaugurated by Minister Elena Espinosa on January 30, 2006, completing the work in 2008.
The lighthouse building and a recent construction attached serve as accommodation for visitors, researchers, biologists, members of the natural park and for the military detachment. Next to these buildings is a military barracks of the army or barracks where the soldiers stationed on the island are located, as well as a helipad. Due to illegal immigration, drug trafficking and rescue, since 2016 the permanent presence in the Lighthouse building of a Civil Guard team as well as a patrol boat, dependent on the maritime service base of the Civil Guard in Almeria. The maintenance of its lighthouse initially depended on the port authority of Malaga, later it came to depend on Almería due to geographical proximity.
Cemetery
The island's cemetery is very small, no bigger than a room, it has three graves and only two have names, they correspond to the mother-in-law and the wife of one of the former lighthouse workers, who died in 1910 and 1920. The third tomb is not identified although it popularly belongs to a German soldier from World War II found dead on the shores of the island. There is also a legend that there is another tomb somewhere on the island that would belong to the Tunisian corsair who gave the island its name, Al-Borany.[citation needed]
Communications
The island serves as a fishing refuge, it has a small port or dock with a dock as well as a field of six buoys for mooring in the western area and three in the eastern part of the island. It also has a platform as a heliport.
In addition, the island serves as a connection point for the submarine telecommunications cable connecting Melilla with Almería since 1891, when a telegraph station was installed, now disappeared.
Pop Culture
- There is a legend, which affirms the existence of a monastery in the twentieth century collected in "El Español" on December 26, 1942, in the article "Community of Coptic monks on the island of Alborán." They proceed from the Holy Mount of Thessaloniki". In this article, an alleged report by Elías Montes Sobrino is presented in which he presents an interrogation to the tower in charge of the lighthouse where he explains the arrival on the island of a chalupa of five foreign persons. This group would be identified in French as five Coptic monks arrived from Mount Athos to build a place of worship. Before the year of his arrival, the monastery already had a bell, which according to the signs of the lighthouse "I don't know where they came from", used to call the prayer and, in the days of fog, warn the ships. El farero habría establecido una relación deami con dicha comunidad. However, there are no other remnants of such construction on the island that can prove some veracity of the surprising story.
- Military Pedro Jevenois Labernade proposed the change of sovereignty of the British colony of Gibraltar by the island of Alborán and the port of the Chafarinas Islands, allowing the economic use of the port of Gibraltar to the United Kingdom and creating a free zone on the north bank of the Strait of Gibraltar.
- The writer Pilar Quirosa-Cheyrouze wrote the chapter “The Lighthouse of the Island of Alboran” of the work “Faros de Almeria”, and in her book “Imperial Islands”, dedicated some verses to the island.
Alboran Island from a ferry on the way to Melilla.
Alboran, white island,recovered in high seas
from the sandy metropolis.
the original colors, the silences
of the ocean troubadour, emigrantPilar Quirosa-Cheyrouze
- The island of Alborán inspired the production team of the famous Resident Evil 4 video game for the creation of the level called "La Isla".
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