Algeciras is a busy port city on the Bay of Gibraltar, the main Spanish departure point for ferries to Ceuta and Tangier in Morocco. Most travellers pass through quickly on their way to Africa, but the city has a certain rough-edged charm if you have time to kill.
The old town climbs a hillside above the port and centres on the Plaza Alta, a pleasant square tiled in azulejo ceramics with orange trees and a church on each corner. The Marinid Walls nearby are among the best-preserved medieval Islamic fortifications in Andalusia — they were buried under the modern city for 600 years before being excavated in the 20th century. The Parque Maria Cristina provides shade and the Hotel Reina Cristina next to it was where the 1906 Algeciras Conference — a key prelude to World War I — was held. The Municipal Museum covers the city's long history as a Roman, Moorish, and medieval port.
The views across the bay to the Rock of Gibraltar are striking, especially at sunset. Algeciras has been a strategic port since Roman times and was a major Moorish settlement — the name derives from the Arabic al-Jazira al-Khadra (the Green Island). Today the port handles more passengers than any other in Spain and is one of the busiest in the Mediterranean.