and ground at the demand of the military authorities, he is naturally
deterred from spending his money on substantial or sumptuous
erections. The area of the town is about one hundred acres.

Gibraltar was known to the Greek and Roman geographers as Calpe or
Alybe, the two names being probably corruptions of the same local
(perhaps Phenician) word. The eminence on the African coast near
Ceuta, which bears the modern English name of Apes' Hill, was then
designated Abyla; and Calpe and Abyla, at least according to an
ancient and widely current interpretation, formed the renowned pillars
of Hercules (Herculis columnæ), which for centuries were the limits of
enterprise to the seafaring peoples of the Mediterranean world.

The strategic importance of the rock appears to have been first
discovered by the Moors, who, when they crossed over from Africa in
the eighth century, selected it as the site of a fortress. From their
leader, Tarik Ibn Zeyad, it was called Gebel Tarik or Tarik's Hill;
and, though the name had a competitor in Gebel af Futah, or Hill of
the Entrance, it gradually gained acceptance, and still remains
sufficiently recognizable in the corrupted form of the present day.
The first siege of the rock was in 1309, when it was taken by Alonzo
Perez de Guzman for Ferdinand IV. of Spain, who, in order to attract
inhabitants to the spot, offered an asylum to swindlers, thieves, and
murderers, and promised to levy no taxes on the import or export of
goods. The attack of Ismail Ben Ferez, in 1315 (second siege), was
frustrated; but in 1333 Vasco Paez de Meira, having allowed the
fortifications and garrison to decay, was obliged to capitulate to
Mahomet IV. (third siege). Alphonso's attempts to recover possession
(fourth siege) were futile, though pertinacious and heroic, and he was
obliged to content himself with a tribute for the rock from Abdul