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Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain located on the Mediterranean, on the North African side of the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates it from the Spanish mainland. Ceuta, together with the other African autonomous city of Melilla and a number of Mediterranean islands, is claimed by Morocco. The area of Ceuta is approximately 28 km².

Ceuta is dominated by a hill called Monte Hacho, on which there is a fort occupied by the Spanish army. Monte Hacho is one of the possible locations for the southern Pillars of Hercules of Greek Legend, the other possibility being Jebel Musa.

Ceuta's strategic location has made it the crucial waypoint of many cultures' trade and military ventures — beginning with the Carthaginians in the 5th century BC, who called the city Abyla. It was not until the Romans took control in about A.D. 42 that the port city (then named Septem) assumed an almost exclusive military purpose. Approximately 400 years later, the Vandals ousted the Romans for control, and later it fell to the Visigoths of Hispania and the Byzantines.

In 710, as Muslim armies approached the city, its Visigothic governor Julian (also described as "king of the Ghomara") changed sides and urged them to invade the Iberian Peninsula. Under the leadership of Berber general Tariq ibn Ziyad, Ceuta was used as a prime staging ground for an assault on Visigothic Hispania soon after.

After Julian's death the Arabs took direct control of the city; this was resented by the surrounding indigenous Berber tribes, who destroyed it in a Kharijite rebellion led by Maysara al-Haqir in 740. It lay in waste until refounded in the 9th century by Majakas, chief of the Majkasa Berber tribe, who started the short-lived dynasty of the Banu Isam. Under his great-grandson they paid allegiance to the Idrisids (briefly); the dynasty finally ended when he abdicated in favour of the Umayyad Caliph of Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman III an-Nasir in 931. Chaos ensued with the fall of the Umayyad caliphate in 1031, but eventually Ceuta, together with the rest of Muslim Spain were taken over by the Moroccan dynasty of Almoravids in 1084. The Almoravids were succeded by the Almohads who conquered Ceuta in 1147 ruling it, apart from Ibn Hud's rebellion of 1232, until the Hafsids of Tunisia took it in 1242. The Hafsids' influence in the west rapidly waned, and the city expelled them in 1249; after this, it went through a period of political instability during which the city was disputed between the Moroccan Kingdom of Fez and the Kingdom of Granada.

In 1387, Ceuta was conquered for the last time by the Kingdom of Fez, with Aragonese help.

In 1415, Ceuta was occupied by the Portuguese during the reign of John I of Portugal.

After Portugal lost its independence to Spain in 1580, the majority of the population of Ceuta became of Spanish origin, so much so that, when Portugal regained its independence in 1640 and war broke out between the two countries, Ceuta was the only colony of the Portuguese Empire that sided with Spain.

The allegiance of Ceuta to Spain was recognized by the Treaty of Lisbon by which, on January 1 1668, King Afonso VI of Portugal formally ceded Ceuta to Carlos II of Spain. However, the flag and coat of arms of Ceuta remained unchanged and to this day still feature the colonial configuration of the Portuguese shield. The flag's background is also the same as that of the flag of Lisbon, the Portuguese capital.

When Spain recognized the independence of Spanish Morocco in 1956, Ceuta and the other plazas de soberanía remained under Spanish rule as they were considered integral parts of the Spanish state.

Culturally, modern Ceuta is considered part of the Spanish region of Andalusia. Indeed, it was until recently attached to the province of Cádiz - the Spanish coast being only 20 km away. It is a very cosmopolitan city, with a large ethnic Berber Muslim minority as well as a Sephardic Jewish minority.

On November 5, 2007, King Juan Carlos I visited the city, sparking protests from the Moroccan government. It was the first time a Spanish head of state had visited Ceuta in 80 years.

Ceuta is known officially in Spanish as Ciudad Autónoma de Ceuta (lit. Autonomous City of Ceuta), with a rank between a standard Spanish city and an autonomous community. Before the Statute of Autonomy, Ceuta was part of the Cádiz province.

Ceuta is part of the territory of the European Union. The city was a free port before Spain joined the European Union in 1986. Now it has a low-tax system within the European Monetary System. As of 2006, its population was 75,861.

Ceuta does not have an airport. There is, however, a regular helicopter service linking it to Málaga Airport. Access to and from Ceuta is by ferry or land.

The government of Morocco has called for the integration of Ceuta and Melilla, along with uninhabited islands such as Isla Perejil, into its national territory, drawing comparisons with Spain's territorial claim to Gibraltar. The Spanish government and both Ceuta's and Melilla's autonomous governments and inhabitants reject these comparisons on the ground that both Ceuta and Melilla are integral parts of the Spanish state whereas Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory, is not nor ever has been part of the United Kingdom. Ceuta's Islamic past is also shorter than much of the rest of Southern Spain. Morocco, however, dismisses these arguments as irrelevant.

ISO 3166-1 reserves EA as the country code for Ceuta and Melilla. The amateur radio call sign used for both cities is EA9, and they count as one separate "entity."

By the Concordat of 1851 the diocese of Ceuta, a suffragan of the Andalusian archbishopric of Seville was suppressed and incorporated in the diocese of Cádiz, whose bishop usually was the Apostolic Administrator of Ceuta.

By the early 20th century there were 22 parishes, 26 priests, and 11,700 inhabitants in Ceuta.

• Ceuta border fence
• Isla Perejil
• Spanish Morocco
• Rock of Gibraltar

• Template:Es iconInformation on the history of Ceuta
• Template:Es iconOfficial Ceuta government website
• Time Magazine: Al-Qaeda Eyes Spain's 'Lost City'
• Spain's North African enclaves
• Documentary about illegal immigrants trying to reach Ceuta from Morocco
• Postcard of Ceuta

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• Satellite image of Ceuta
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)