The Port of Algeciras is the port and

harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

Algeciras Algeciras ( , ) is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. Located in the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, near the Strait of Gibraltar, it is the largest city on the Bay of Gibraltar ( es, Bahía de Algeci ...

, a city located in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

in the

autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. It is a commercial, fishing and passenger port. Primarily a

transshipment Transshipment, trans-shipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination. One possible reason for transshipment is to change the means of transport during the journey (e.g ...

port, its position near the

Strait of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar ( ar, مضيق جبل طارق, Maḍīq Jabal Ṭāriq; es, Estrecho de Gibraltar, Archaic: Pillars of Hercules), also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Medi ...

and key east–west shipping routes establishes it as one of the busiest transshipment hubs in the world. It competes with

Tanger-Med Tanger Med (in Arabic: طنجة المتوسط ) is a Moroccan industrial port complex, located 45 km northeast of Tanger and opposite of Tarifa, Spain (15 km north) on the Strait of Gibraltar, with handling capacities of 9 million containers, on ...

for the local transshipment market. It consists of numerous maritime infrastructures scattered throughout the

Bay of Gibraltar The Bay of Gibraltar ( es, Bahía de Algeciras), is a bay at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula. It is around long by wide, covering an area of some , with a depth of up to in the centre of the bay. It opens to the south into the Strait ...

. Although only the town of

and

La Línea de la Concepción La Línea de la Concepción (, more often referred to as La Línea) is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. The city lies on the sandy isthmus which is part of the eastern flank of the Bay of Gibraltar, a ...

overlook the bay, there are port facilities in the rest of the bank, also belonging to the municipalities of San Roque and Los Barrios. It is managed along the port of Tarifa by the Port Authority of Algeciras Bay.

Rankings

It is the largest port in Spain with almost 100 million tons in 2015 and largest in the Mediterranean Sea, and in 2018 was the 31st in the world in container shipping, and 33rd overall in 2019. In 2010 it exceeded 70 million tons in total traffic and more than 2.8 million containers. The port totals over 10 km of quays in different basins, which manage all types of passenger and freight traffic. It is 7th busiest container port in the continent of Europe and 28th in the world with a trade volume of 2.81 million

TEUs The twenty-foot equivalent unit (abbreviated TEU or teu) is an inexact unit of cargo capacity, often used for container ships and container ports.Rowlett, 2004. It is based on the volume of a intermodal container, a standard-sized metal box whic ...

in 2010 (World Shipping Council) and 9th busiest port by cargo in Europe and 57th in the world with a cargo volume of 69,572,000 tons in 2008.AAPA World Port Rankings 2008
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Operations

In addition to containers, port operations include bunker fuel handling,

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as ...

ping,

roll-on/roll-off Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...

and facilities for a

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

fleet.

Fauna

Despite the heavy ship track,

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

s and

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the b ...

s are known to swim into the port from time to time (see

History

Unlike other major European ports, the present port is rather young. In ancient times the maritime shipping focused on Carteia, which was abandoned in the Middle Ages. During the Muslim presence in the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

, Algeciras became the crossing point for crossing the

. In the

Reconquista The ' ( Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the N ...

the border area became the Moorish Kingdom of Granada, which caused it to be destroyed and abandoned in 1379. The population became concentrated 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 = Gibr ...

. With the conquest of Gibraltar in 1704, the population fled and was distributed mainly along the bay. Several settlements were established, of which the only one on the banks of the sea was the repopulation of Algeciras. In the new distribution of the bay a port facility was not created until 1894, when a wooden jetty was created at the mouth of the

Río de la Miel The Río de la Miel is a short river in the south of Spain, emptying into the Bay of Gibraltar at Algeciras. It falls over a distance of 350 metres including some waterfalls and working water mills. As the port of Algeciras The Port of Algecira ...

Destinations

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 territori ...

by Balearia, FRS and Trasmediterranea *

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 ...

by Balearia, FRS, Inter Shipping and Trasmediterranea

References

External links

Autoridad Portuaria Bahía de Algeciras
{{coord, 36.136, N, 5.435, W, display=title, source:dewiki

Geography of the Province of Cádiz Algeciras Buildings and structures in Andalusia Transport in Andalusia