Alboran Island ( es, Isla de Alborán) is a small islet of Spain (

province of Almería Almería (, also , ) is a province of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It is bordered by the provinces of Granada, Murcia, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is the homonymous city of Almería. Almería has an area of . With 701, ...

) in the

Alboran Sea The Alboran Sea (from Arabic , ''al-Baḥrān'') is the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between the Iberian Peninsula and the north of Africa (Spain on the north and Morocco and Algeria on the south). The Strait of Gibraltar, w ...

, part of the western Mediterranean Sea, about north of the Moroccan coast and from the Spanish mainland. The main buildings are an automated lighthouse built in the 19th century, a small cemetery, and a harbor.

Description

The island is a flat platform about

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

and about in area. off the northeastern end of the island is the small ''islote de La Nube'' (literally, islet of the cloud).

Natural history

Alboran has a volcanic origin, located in an important seismic zone where the African plate collides with the Eurasian plate. In 1899 a new igneous rock was discovered on Alboran, with the name of alboranite, in honor of the island. The islet has been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because it supports a breeding population of Audouin's gulls, as well as various species of passerines on migration. The

wall-rocket ''Diplotaxis'' (wall-rocket) is a genus of 32–34 species of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae (Cruciferae), native to Europe, the Mediterranean region and Macaronesia; the species diversity is highest in the Iberian Peninsula, North ...

species '' Diplotaxis siettiana'', called ''jaramago de Alborán'' in Spanish, has its only known wild population on the island. It was extinct there during much of the late 20th century but successfully reintroduced from ex-situ conservation stocks in 1999. In 2001, the United Nations declared the island and its seabed a Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance.

History

The island became a power base of Mustafa ben Yusuf al Mahmud ed Din (), a Tunisian

corsair A corsair is a privateer or pirate, especially: * Barbary corsair, Ottoman and Berber pirates and privateers operating from North Africa * French corsairs, privateers operating on behalf of the French crown Corsair may also refer to: Arts and ...

in the Ottoman sultan's service whose attacks were so ferocious that he became known as ''Al-Borani'' (hence the island's name), from the

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

for "thunderstorm". It became a Spanish possession after the Battle of Alboran in 1540. Alborán has been known in error as "Albusama". The aristocrat Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria visited the island and published in Prague an illustrated book in German: Alboran (1898). Early in World War II, the shape of the flat island with a single building prompted a British bomber crew operating at dusk to bomb the island, mistaking it for a U-boat. In the mid-1960s there were several attempts by Soviet fishing boats to establish a settlement on Alboran, which forced the Spanish army to establish a permanent detachment of

Spanish Navy Marines The Spanish Naval Infantry ( es, Infantería de Marina) is the naval infantry unit of the Spanish Navy () responsible for conducting amphibious warfare by utilizing naval platforms and resources. The Marine Corps is fully integrated into the ...

for the control and protection of the island. It is now home to a small Spanish Navy garrison and an automated lighthouse.

Administration

The island has belonged to the municipality of Almería since the 19th century.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alboran, Isla de Almería Islands of Africa Islands of Spain Mediterranean islands Volcanoes of Africa Volcanoes of Spain Pre-Holocene volcanoes Landforms of Andalusia Important Bird Areas of Spain Seabird colonies Important Bird Areas of Mediterranean islands