The playa de Los Lances ( en, Beach of Los Lances) is a

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc sh ...

that forms one side of the town of

Tarifa Tarifa (, Arabic: طريفة) is a Spanish municipality in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. Located at the southernmost end of the Iberian Peninsula, it is primarily known as one of the world's most popular destinations for windsports. Tarifa ...

, in the region of

Campo de Gibraltar Campo de Gibraltar (, "Gibraltar Countryside") is a comarca (county) in the province of Cádiz, Spain, in the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Andalusia, the southernmost part of mainland Europe. It comprises the municipalities o ...

in Andalusia, Spain. The beach is long from Punta de la Peña to Punta de Tarifa, with an average width of . It is usually differentiated into two zones: North Los Lances, an undeveloped beach away from main population center, and South Los Lances, very close to the town of Tarifa and with extensive human occupation. The Río Jara separates the two areas of the beach. Los Lances' location on the Atlantic side of the Strait of Gibraltar creates unique wind conditions which have made it Europe's foremost destination for kitesurfing. The beach is also a favorite for windsurfing and similar sports, and has ample facilities for participants in these sports.

Description

The natural beach environment has been much degraded by human activity, despite being protected inside the Natural Park of the Los Lances beach, which is part of the Natural Park of the Strait ('' Parque Natural del Estrecho''). The beach has less natural beauty than others in the area. The dune system is quite degraded by the continuous movement of people, and parking uses much of the secondary dunes. In the northern part, the dunes are separated from the road by a line of

pine tree A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden ac ...

s planted to prevent the encroachment of the sand onto the road. This barrier has led, however, to a steady deterioration in the system by reducing the capacity of the dunes to expand. The southern area is in even worse condition. The many urban developments and the discharges of these into nearby streams has caused the disappearance of numerous species and loss of dune dynamics. The

Battle of Río Salado The Battle of Río Salado also known as the Battle of Tarifa (30 October 1340) was a battle of the armies of King Afonso IV of Portugal and King Alfonso XI of Castile against those of Sultan Abu al-Hasan 'Ali of the Marinid dynasty and Yusuf I ...

, also known as the Battle of Tarifa (30 October 1340), took place near the beach and resulted in a decisive victory of the armies of King

Afonso IV of Portugal Afonso IVEnglish: ''Alphonzo'' or ''Alphonse'', or ''Affonso'' (Archaic Portuguese), ''Alfonso'' or ''Alphonso'' (Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonsus'' (Latin). (; 8 February 129128 May 1357), called the Brave ( pt, o Bravo, links=no), was King ...

and King Alfonso XI of Castile against those of the

Marinid The Marinid Sultanate was a Berber Muslim empire from the mid-13th to the 15th century which controlled present-day Morocco and, intermittently, other parts of North Africa (Algeria and Tunisia) and of the southern Iberian Peninsula (Spain) ar ...

sultan

Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman Abu Al-Hasan 'Ali ibn 'Othman (c. 1297 – 24 May 1351), () was a sultan of the Marinid dynasty who reigned in Morocco between 1331 and 1348. In 1333 he captured Gibraltar from the Castilians, although a later attempt to take Tarifa in 1339 en ...

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 ...

and the Nasrid sultan

Yusuf I Abu al-Hajjaj Yusuf ibn Ismail ( ar, أبو الحجاج يوسف بن إسماعيل; 29 June 131819 October 1354), known by the regnal name al-Muayyad billah (, "He who is aided by God"), was the seventh Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Grana ...

of Granada.

References

{{Tarifa Costa de la Luz Beaches of Andalusia