Benzú is a small settlement within the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

autonomous city of

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...

. It has a population of 1,987 according to the 2011 census, divided into two units with Ceuta as its municipality.

Description

Benzú is in the northwest of the Spanish exclave, with a northern coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. It lies close to the border with

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

. The small town has about 1200 inhabitants in 2011 and the population has risen only slightly in the last decade. The town has the last beach before the border and the small community of

Belyounech Belyounech (, ) is a town and rural commune in the Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma region of Morocco. The city has many alternate transliterations, including Beliunech and Bel Younech. Belyounech borders the community of Benzú in the Spanish auto ...

in the Moroccan region of

Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima ( ar, طنجة - تطوان - الحسيمة, ṭanja - tiṭwān - al-ḥusayma; ber, ⵟⴰⵏⵊⴰ ⵜⵉⵟⵡⴰⵏ ⵍⵃⵓⵙⵉⵎⴰ, ṭanja tiṭwan lḥusima) is the northernmost of the twelve regions of ...

. From this area the nearby mountain of Jebel Musa, which is known locally as the "Dead Woman" as the profile of the mountain is of a similar shape to a woman lying down, can be seen.

History

It has rock shelters and caves which have evidence of occupation during the

palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος '' lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone to ...

and

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

periods. Researchers have found seven levels of human occupation dating back to 250,000 years ago. The evidence they have found has led them to think of the Straits of Gibraltar not as a barrier but a bridge to early humans. The different levels within the cave show the development of stone tools. The tools are made from Flint, Sandstone and

Radiolarite Radiolarite is a siliceous, comparatively hard, fine-grained, chert-like, and homogeneous sedimentary rock that is composed predominantly of the microscopic remains of radiolarians. This term is also used for indurated radiolarian oozes and ...

with scrapers used for working both wood and hide. Comparison of the technology used during the Pleistocene and Holocene periods by early humans shows that there was a very similar civilisation in caves excavated in

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

, mainland Spain and around

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...

to caves around Benzu. The population was given as 1,127 in 2000 and it has risen to 1,170 in 2010. The N-354 and N-362 roads link Benzú to the city of Ceuta.

Demographics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benzu Geography of Ceuta