Issue 01 · August 2026
Two cities, five centuries, one fence
Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish cities on the coast of Africa, and the European Union’s only land border with the continent.
↑ Drag the handle to move through time9 min read · 8 August 2026
Chapter 1 of 12ContextNone — a fort wall
1497
A garrison, not a border
1497Castile takes Melilla. There is nothing here to cross: the frontier is the wall of the fort. Ceuta, forty kilometres west, is Portuguese.
— Photgrapher ANotes and sourcesCeuta and Melilla: why Europe’s African border remains a flashpoint
Up close
The eight kilometres
Ceuta’s land border runs about eight kilometres from the Mediterranean shore to the Atlantic side of the isthmus. Drag the map and zoom in: the line running around the city is the border itself.
The figure ledger
Disputed figure
23peopleDeaths at the Melilla fencereported by MoroccoInterior Ministry migration balance 2025 · 24 June 2022
37peopleDeaths at the Melilla fenceNGO countDeaths on the routes to Spain, 2025 · 24 June 2022
Contents
Keep this
Take the stop with you
One email per issue. You can unsubscribe in one click.
Notes and sources
1Interior Ministry migration balance 2025 — Ministerio del Interior, ministry data, 2 January 2026 ·Primary
2N.D. and N.T. v. Spain — European Court of Human Rights, court ruling, 13 February 2020 ·Primary
3Ceuta and Melilla: why Europe’s African border remains a flashpoint — Al Jazeera, explainer, 5 August 2026
4Deaths on the routes to Spain, 2025 — Caminando Fronteras, NGO report, 31 December 2025
Readers on this chapter
0 commentsWhat readers say about 1497
Comments are anchored to the chapter you are reading, so a thread about 1986 stays with 1986. Move the timeline and the thread changes with it.
No comments on this chapter yet. Be the first.
The address confirms this comment and does nothing else: no notices, no list, no analytics. It is never shown. Unconfirmed after seven days, the comment and the address are deleted.