Tombolo
A tombolo, from the Italian tombolo, derived from the Latin tumulus, meaning'mound', sometimes translated as ayre, is a deposition landform in which an island is attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such as a spit or bar. Once attached, the island is known as a tied island. A tombolo is a sandy isthmus. Several islands tied together by bars which rise above the water level are called a tombolo cluster. Two or more tombolos may form an enclosure that can fill with sediment; the shoreline moves toward the island due to accretion of sand in the lee of the island where wave energy and longshore drift are reduced and therefore deposition of sand occurs. True tombolos are formed by wave diffraction; as waves near an island, they are slowed by the shallow water surrounding it. These waves bend around the island to the opposite side as they approach; the wave pattern created by this water movement causes a convergence of longshore drift on the opposite side of the island. The beach sediments that are moving by lateral transport on the lee side of the island will accumulate there, conforming to the shape of the wave pattern.
In other words, the waves sweep sediment together from both sides. When enough sediment has built up, the beach shoreline, known as a spit, will connect with an island and form a tombolo. In the case of longshore drift from one single or a dominant direction, like at Chesil Beach or Spurn Head, the flow of material is along the coast in a movement, not determined by the now tied island, such as Portland, which it has reached. In this and similar cases, while the strip of beach material connected to the Island may be technically called a tombolo because it links the island to the land, it is better thought of in terms of its formation – as a spit or otherwise. Tombolos are more prone to natural fluctuations of profile and area as a result of tidal and weather events than a normal beach is; because of this susceptibility to weathering, tombolos are sometimes made more sturdy through the construction of roads or parking lots. The sediments that make up a tombolo are coarser towards the finer towards the surface.
It is easy to see this pattern when the waves are destructive and wash away finer grained material at the top, revealing coarser sands and cobbles as the base. Sea level rise may contribute to accretion, as material is pushed up with rising sea levels; this is the case with Chesil Beach, notable because the shingle ridge is parallel rather than at right angles to the coast. Tombolos demonstrate the sensitivity of shorelines. A small piece of land, such as an island, can change the way that waves move, leading to different deposition of sediments. Ayre Bar Causeway Cuspate Foreland Isthmus Tied island Shoal Geology. About.com's page on tombolos Tombolo in Sainte-Marie, Martinique further reading on Detached breakwaters fom Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee in Belgium further reading on coastal structures fom Prof. Leo van Rijn in Holland
Tied island
Tied islands, or land-tied islands as they are known, are landforms consisting of an island, connected to land only by a tombolo: a spit of beach materials connected to land at both ends. St Ninian's Isle, in the Shetland Islands off the north coast of Scotland, is an example of this. Other examples include: Maury Island, Washington in the Puget Sound, Coronado and Nahant, Massachusetts in the U. S.. The Isle of Portland is described as a tied island, although geographers now believe that Chesil Beach is a barrier beach that has moved eastwards, rather than a tombolo, which would have been formed by the effect of the island on waves. Paniquian Island is a tied island in Puerto Galera, a popular tourist destination in the Philippines; the island is connected to the main island of Mindoro by a small tombolo, only submerged a few times per year. Islands portal Glossary of geology and related sciences. Jesse V. Howell, American Geological Institute. 1962. Some Coastal Landform Definitions. Matthew Flinders, Villanova College, Queensland.
Media related to Tied islands at Wikimedia Commons
Plazas de soberanía
The plazas de soberanía are the Spanish sovereign territories in North Africa. These are separate pieces of land scattered along the Mediterranean coast bordering Morocco; the name refers to the fact that these territories have been a part of Spain since the formation of the modern country, are distinguished from African territories obtained by Spain during the 19th and 20th century. A distinction was made between the so-called "major sovereign territories", comprising the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, the "minor sovereign territories", referring to a number of smaller exclaves and islands along the coast. In the present, the term refers to the latter. During the Reconquista and following the conquest of Granada in 1492, forces of the Castilian and Portuguese kingdoms conquered and maintained numerous posts in North Africa for trade and as a defence against Barbary piracy. In 1415, the Portuguese conquered Ceuta. In 1481, the Papal bull Æterni regis had granted all land south of the Canary Islands to Portugal.
Only this archipelago and the possessions of Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña, Villa Cisneros, Mazalquivir, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, Algiers, Bugia and Tunis remained as Spanish territory in Africa. Following the independence of Portugal from Spain, Ceuta was ceded by Portugal to Spain in 1668. In 1848, Spanish troops conquered the Islas Chafarinas. In the late 19th century, after the so-called Scramble for Africa, European nations had taken over colonial control of most of the African continent; the Treaty of Fez made most of Morocco a protectorate of France, while Spain assumed the role of protecting power over the northern part, Spanish Morocco. When Spain relinquished its protectorate and recognized Morocco's independence in 1956, it did not give up these minor territories. Spain had held them well before the establishment of its protectorate. On 11 July 2002, Morocco stationed six gendarmes on Perejil Island, at the time a source of complaint by Spain; the Spanish Armed Forces responded by launching a military operation code-named Operation Romeo-Sierra.
The attack was carried out by Spanish commandos of Grupo de Operaciones Especiales. The Spanish Navy and Spanish Air Force provided support, it has since been evacuated by both countries. There are three plazas de soberanía: Apart from the three distinct groups, there are two other islands considered within the plazas de soberanía; the disputed Isla Perejil, a small uninhabited islet close to Ceuta, considered by Spain to be a part of Ceuta and not a territory in its own right. The Isla de Alborán, another small island in the western Mediterranean, about 50 kilometres from the African coast and 90 kilometres from Europe, is attached to the municipality of Almería on the Iberian Peninsula; the plazas de soberanía are small peninsulas off the coast of Morocco. They are administered directly by the Spanish central government. Like Ceuta and Melilla, they are a part of Spain, therefore part of the European Union, their currency is the euro. Morocco claims sovereignty over the Spanish North African territories, plus the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
The legality of this claim is disputed by International Law and scholars given that Morocco was founded after these territories were constituted as part of Spain. Spanish Africa Spanish North Africa Spanish Protectorate of Morocco List of Spanish Colonial Wars in Morocco Tremper, Shawn Del. Territorial Disputes in the Strait of Gibralter. California State University, Sacramento. Pp. 431 + bibliography. OCLC 19619469
Philip I of Castile
Philip of Habsburg, called the Handsome or the Fair, was Duke of Burgundy from 1482 to 1506 and the first member of the house of Habsburg to be King of Castile as Philip I. The son of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I by his first wife Mary, Philip was less than four years old when his mother died, upon her death, he inherited the greater part of the Duchy of Burgundy and the Burgundian Netherlands as Philip IV. In 1496, his father arranged for him to marry Joanna of Castile, second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, rulers of Aragon and Castile respectively. Around the same time, Philip's sister Margaret was given in marriage to Joanna's brother John, as part of an agreement between their fathers. Within four years after the wedding, Joanna became heir presumptive to Aragon and Castile, following the deaths of her brother, elder sister and infant nephew during that period. In 1504, aged 27, Philip became king of Castile jure uxoris when his mother-in-law died and Joanna succeeded her, he died only two years leaving his wife distraught with grief.
Philip was the first Habsburg monarch in Spain, is the progenitor of every monarch of Spain up to today. He died before his father, therefore never inherited his father's territories or became Holy Roman Emperor. However, his son Emperor Charles V united the Habsburg, Burgundian and Aragonese inheritances. Philip holds a special place in Habsburg history because he was the pivot around which the dynasty acquired a large portion of its extensive lands. By inheriting Burgundy from his mother and by acquiring much of Spain and its possessions in the New World by marriage to Joanna, Philip was instrumental in vastly enhancing the territories of the Habsburgs, his progeny would dominate European history for the next two centuries. Philip's wife Joanna was an elder sister to Catherine of Aragon, who married successively the brothers Arthur, Prince of Wales and King Henry VIII of England, he did once visit England, the young Prince Henry was much impressed with him. Indeed, Henry is said to have regarded Philip as providing a model of leadership towards which he aspired.
Philip was born in Bruges, the son of the future Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife Mary, Duchess of Burgundy. He was born in the County of Flanders during the reign of his grandfather Frederick III; the child was named in honour of his great-grandfather, Philip the Good, grandfather of his mother Mary. Philip was only four years old when his mother died in 1482, resulting in him succeeded her as ruler of the Burgundian possessions under the guardianship of his father. A period of turmoil ensued which witnessed sporadic hostilities between, the large towns of Flanders and the supporters of Maximilian. During this interregnum, Philip became caught up in events and was briefly sequestered in Bruges as part of the larger Flemish campaign to support their claims of greater autonomy, which they had wrested from Mary of Burgundy in an agreement known as the Great Privilege of 1477. By the early 1490s, the turmoil of the interregnum gave way to an uneasy stand-off, with neither French support for the cities of the Franc, nor Imperial support from Philip's grandfather, Emperor Frederick III proving decisive.
Both sides came to terms in the Treaty of Senlis in 1493, when Emperor Frederick died and Philip's father Maximilian became the new emperor. This smoothed over the internal power struggle as the two sides agreed to make the 15-year-old Philip crown prince in the following year. In 1494, Maximilian relinquished his regency under the terms of the Treaty of Senlis and Philip, aged 16, took over the rule of the Burgundian lands himself, although in practice authority was derived from a council of Burgundian notables. On 20 October 1496, he married Joanna, daughter of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, in Lier, Belgium; the marriage was one of a set of family alliances between the Habsburgs and the Trastámara, designed to strengthen against growing French power, which had increased thanks to the policies of Louis XI and the successful assertion of regal power after war with the League of the Public Weal. The matter became more urgent after Charles VIII's invasion of Italy.
Philip's sister Margaret married John, Prince of Asturias, only son of Ferdinand and Isabella and heir apparent to the unified crowns of Castile and Aragon. The double alliance was never intended to let the Spanish kingdoms fall under Habsburg control. At the time of her marriage to Philip, Joanna was third in line to the throne, with John and their sister Isabella married and hopeful of progeny. In 1500, shortly after the birth of Joanna and Philip's second child, in Flanders, the succession to the Castilian and Aragonese crowns was thrown into turmoil; the heir apparent, had died in 1497 shortly after his marriage to Margaret of Austria. The crown thereby seemed destined to devolve upon his and Joanna's elder sister Isabella, wife of Manuel I of Portugal, she died in 1498, while giving birth to a son named Miguel da Paz, to whom succession to the united crowns of Castile and Portugal now fell. The succession to the Castilian and Aragonese crowns now fell to Joanna; because Ferdinand could produce another heir, the Cortes of Aragon refused to recognize Joanna as heir presumptive to the Kingdom of Aragon.
In the Kingdom of Castile, the succession was clear. Moreover, there was no Salic tradition which the Castilian Cortes could use to thwart the succession passing to Joa
Battle of Alcácer Quibir
The Battle of Alcácer Quibir was fought in northern Morocco, near the town of Ksar-el-Kebir and Larache, on 4 August 1578. The combatants were the army of the deposed Moroccan Sultan Abu Abdallah Mohammed II, with his ally, the King of Portugal Sebastian I, against a large Moroccan army nominally under the new Sultan of Morocco Abd Al-Malik I; the Christian king, Sebastian I, had planned a crusade after Abu Abdallah asked him to help recover his throne. Abu Abdallah's uncle, Abd Al-Malik, had taken it from him with Ottoman support; the defeat of Portugal and attendant death of the childless Sebastian led to the end of the Aviz dynasty, the integration of the country in the Iberian Union for 60 years under the Philippine Dynasty in a dynastic union with Spain. Sebastian, who would be known in Portugal as the Desired, was the son of the Infante Dom John and Joanna, daughter of the Emperor Charles V, his father died before he was born, he became king at the age of three after the death of his grandfather in 1557.
He was educated entirely by Jesuits, by his guardian and tutor Aleixo de Meneses and by Catherine of Austria, sister of Charles V and wife of King John III. Some, judging him after his defeat, alleged that under these influences his youthful idealism soon mutated into religious fanaticism, although he never joined the Holy League; the Portuguese Cortes asked Sebastian several times to go to Morocco and stop the turmoil of the advancing Turkish military presence, because the Ottomans would be a threat to the security of the Portuguese coasts and to the commerce with Guinea and the Atlantic Islands. But it was only when Abu Abdallah Mohammed II Saadi went to Portugal and asked for Sebastian's help in recovering his throne from his uncle that Sebastian decided to mount a military effort. Sebastian felt driven to revive lost glories by intervening in North Africa, influenced by the events such as the defense of Mazagan in 1562 from a Moroccan siege. Accordingly, in 1568, the kingdom began to prepare for intervention in Morocco.
This policy was not only supported by the mercantile bourgeoisie as it would benefit commerce in this area, but by the nobility. Up to that time Portuguese military action in Africa had been confined to small expeditions and raids. Sebastian proposed to change this strategy entirely. In 1574 Sebastian visited some of the Portuguese bases in North Africa and led a successful raid on Muslim territory beyond the Portuguese city of Tangier, engaging in several skirmishes and in a confrontation of greater magnitude on 21 October. Although in numerical inferiority but with a heavy contingent of cavalry, he was successful, which encouraged him to grander designs against the new Saadian ruler of Morocco, he gave his support to Abu Abdallah Mohammed II Saadi, engaged in a civil war to recover the throne of Morocco from his uncle, the Emir Abd Al-Malik -, aided by the Ottomans. Despite the admonitions of his mother and his uncle Philip II of Spain, Sebastian was determined to wage a military campaign, he used much of Portugal's imperial wealth to equip a large fleet and gather an army which included soldiers of several nationalities: 2,000 volunteers from Spain, 3,000 mercenaries from Flanders and Germany, 600 Italians recruited to aid in an invasion of Ireland under the leadership of the English adventurer, Thomas Stukley.
It is said that the expeditionary force numbered 500 ships, the army in total numbered about 18,000 men, including the flower of the Portuguese nobility. After haranguing his troops from the windows of the Church of Santa Maria in Lagos, Sebastian departed that port in his armada on 24 June 1578, he landed at Arzila, in Portuguese Morocco, where Abu Abdallah joined him with an additional 6,000 Moorish allied troops, marched into the interior. The Emir, gravely ill, had meanwhile collected a large army, rallying his countrymen to jihad against the Portuguese invaders; the two armies approached each other near Ksar-el-Kebir, camping on opposite sides of a Loukkos river. On 4 August 1578, the Portuguese and Moorish allied troops were drawn up in battle array, Sebastian rode around encouraging the ranks, but the Moroccans advanced on a broad front. The Sultan had 10,000 cavalry on the wings, in the center had placed Moors, driven out of Spain and thus bore a special grudge against Christians. Despite his illness, the Sultan led his forces on horseback.
The battle started as both sides exchanged several volleys of gunfire from artillery. Stukley, commanding the Portuguese center, was killed by a cannonball early in the battle; the Moroccan cavalry began to encircle the Portuguese army. Both armies soon became engaged in a melee; the flanks of the Portuguese army began to give way to the Moorish cavalry, the center became threatened as well. Seeing the flanks compromised, having lost its commander early in battle, the Portuguese center lost heart and was overcome; the battle ended after nearly four hours of heavy fighting and resulted in the total defeat of the Portuguese and Abu Abdallah's army with 8,000 dead, including the sl
Larache
Larache is an important harbour town in the region of Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima in northern Morocco. The town was founded by the Banu Arous tribe, who gave it the name Araich Beni Arous. In 1471, the Portuguese settlers from Asilah and Tangier drove the inhabitants out of Larache, again it remained uninhabited until the Saadi Sultan Mohammed ash-Sheikh decided to repopulate it and build a stronghold on the plateau above river Loukos, he constructed a fortress at the entrance to the port as a means of controlling access to the river. In the 15th century superpower due to their marine expenditures Portugal spoke of Larache as the largest Port. For a long time, attempts by the Portuguese and French to take it met with no success; the Portuguese established the nearby Graciosa fortress in 1489. The Kasbah, built in 1491 by Moulay en Nasser became a pirate stronghold. In 1610, the town passed to the Spanish, who stayed there until 1689, but who used the ports as trading stops and never administered the town.
Moulay Ismail conquest by Siege of Larache. Attacks on Larache continued. In 1765, a French fleet failed in the Larache expedition. In 1829, the Austrians punitively bombarded the city due to Moroccan piracy. Due to the colonisation era Spain took Larache in 1911 and held it for 45 years until 1956. Lixus is the site of an ancient city located in Morocco just north of the modern seaport of Larache on the bank of the Loukkos River, it was built by a Berber king in 1180 BC. Lixus was one of the Kingdom of Mauretania's ancient cities, it was settled by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC. Lixus was part of a chain of Phoenician/Carthaginian settlements; when Carthage fell to Ancient Rome, Lixus and Mogador were annexed to the Kingdom of Mauretania. This ancient Amazigh city grew in importance coming under Carthaginian domination. After the destruction of Carthage, Lixus fell to Amazigh control, reaching its zenith during the reign of the Amazigh king Juba II; some ancient Greek writers located at Lixus the mythological garden of the Hesperides, the keepers of the golden apples.
The name of the city, mentioned by writers from Hanno the Navigator to the Geographer of Ravenna and confirmed by the legend on its coins and by an inscription. The ancients believed this to be the site of the Garden of the Hesperides and of a sanctuary of Hercules, where Hercules gathered gold apples, more ancient than the one at Cadiz, Spain. However, there are no grounds for the claim that Lixus was founded at the end of the second millennium BC. Life was maintained there until the Islamic conquest of North Africa by the presence of a mosque and a house with patio with the covered walls of painted stuccos. In the 2014 Moroccan census Larache recorded a population of 125,008 inhabitants. Periods of Berber and Spanish rule have left their mark, although the most dominant is the Muslim influence; the layout of the old town is Moorish, while houses in the new town seem to be Andalusian in style. Larache has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate with heavy rainfall; the summers are moderately hot and sunny - ideal for the city's beaches - and the winters are wet and cool.
Lixus Port Lixus Plaza de España Oued Loukos Charie Mohammed Al-Khamis Storks Castle Boukharis House Torres Park Jardin of Lions The Conservatory of Music Kessba, Gebibat & Bab Behar Port of Larache Dghoghi Houses Balcon Atlantico Grave of Jean Genet The Colegio Español Luis Vives, a Spanish international school, is in Larache. Sidi Jilali bin Abd Allah al-Masbahi, native of Saqiyat al-Hamar, is considered a saint of Larache. Lalla Mennana al-Masbahiya, his daughter, is considered a saint and patroness of the city. Jean Genet had requested to be buried there, his grave is in the Spanish cemetery of Larache. Amina Filali, whose suicide in 2012 sparked a political debate on women's rights and article 475 of the Moroccan penal code. Juan Goytisolo, Spanish novelist, is buried in the Spanish cemetery of Larache. Almuñécar, Spain Fallujah, Iraq Larache Province Lixus Loukkos River Chabab Larache an old famous football club from the city Oussama Belhcen a musician from Larache Website of the latest news about the city and its region 24/24h Official Website in Spanish Forum of Larache City in Arabic Entry in Lexicorient Encyclopedia Islam
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable items or properties. Those who engage in acts of piracy are called pirates; the earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding. Historic examples include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, the Gulf of Aden, the English Channel, whose geographic structures facilitated pirate attacks. A land-based parallel is the ambushing of travelers by bandits and brigands in highways and mountain passes. Privateering uses similar methods to piracy, but the captain acts under orders of the state authorizing the capture of merchant ships belonging to an enemy nation, making it a legitimate form of war-like activity by non-state actors.
While the term can include acts committed in the air, on land, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore, in cyberspace, as well as the fictional possibility of space piracy, this article focuses on maritime piracy. It does not include crimes committed against people traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator. Piracy or pirating is the name of a specific crime under customary international law and the name of a number of crimes under the municipal law of a number of states. In the early 21st century, seaborne piracy against transport vessels remains a significant issue in the waters between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, off the Somali coast, in the Strait of Malacca and Singapore. Today, pirates armed with automatic weapons, such as assault rifles, machine guns and rocket propelled grenades use small motorboats to attack and board ships, a tactic that takes advantage of the small number of crew members on modern cargo vessels and transport ships, they use larger vessels, known as "mother ships", to supply the smaller motorboats.
The international community is facing many challenges in bringing modern pirates to justice, as these attacks occur in international waters. Some nations have used their naval forces to protect private ships from pirate attacks and to pursue pirates, some private vessels use armed security guards, high-pressure water cannons, or sound cannons to repel boarders, use radar to avoid potential threats; the English word "pirate" comes from the Latin term purateivitia and that from Greek πειρατής, "brigand", in turn from πειράομαι, "I attempt", from πεῖρα, "attempt, experience". The meaning of the Greek word peiratēs is "one who attacks"; the word is cognate to peril. The term first appeared in English c. 1300. Spelling did not become standardised until the eighteenth century, spellings such as "pirrot", "pyrate" and "pyrat" occurred until this period, it may be reasonable to assume that piracy has existed for as long as the oceans were plied for commerce. As early as 258 AD, the Gothic-Herulic fleet ravaged towns on the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara.
The Aegean coast suffered similar attacks a few years later. In 264, the Goths reached Galatia and Cappadocia, Gothic pirates landed on Cyprus and Crete. In the process, the Goths took thousands into captivity. In 286 AD, Carausius, a Roman military commander of Gaulish origins, was appointed to command the Classis Britannica, given the responsibility of eliminating Frankish and Saxon pirates, raiding the coasts of Armorica and Belgic Gaul. In the Roman province of Britannia, Saint Patrick was enslaved by Irish pirates; the most known and far-reaching pirates in medieval Europe were the Vikings, seaborne warriors from Scandinavia who raided and looted between the 8th and 12th centuries, during the Viking Age in the Early Middle Ages. They raided the coasts and inland cities of all Western Europe as far as Seville, attacked by the Norse in 844. Vikings attacked the coasts of North Africa and Italy and plundered all the coasts of the Baltic Sea; some Vikings ascending the rivers of Eastern Europe as far as the Black Sea and Persia.
The lack of centralized powers all over Europe during the Middle Ages enabled pirates to attack ships and coastal areas all over the continent. In the Late Middle Ages, the Frisian pirates known as Arumer Zwarte Hoop led by Pier Gerlofs Donia and Wijerd Jelckama, fought against the troops of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V with some success. Toward the end of the 9th century, Moorish pirate havens were established along the coast of southern France and northern Italy. In 846 Moor raiders sacked the extra muros Basilicas of Saint Paul in Rome. In 911, the bishop of Narbonne was unable to return to France from Rome because the Moors from Fraxinet controlled all the passes in the Alps. Moor pirates operated out of the Balearic Islands in the 10th century. From 824 to 961 Arab pirates in the Emirate of Crete raided the entire Mediterranean. In the 14th century, raids by Moor pirates forced the Venetian Duke of Crete to ask Venice to keep its fleet on constant guard. After the Slavic invasions of the former Roman province of Dalmatia in the 5th and 6th centuries, a tribe called the Narentines revived the old Illyrian piratical habits and raided the Adriatic Sea starting in the 7th
