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Inundation, Gibraltar

Artificial lakesEngvarB from October 2013Fortifications in Gibraltar
Gibraltar Neutral Ground and Inundation
Gibraltar Neutral Ground and Inundation

The Inundation was a flooded and fortified area of ground on the sandy isthmus between Spain and Gibraltar, created by the British in the 18th century to restrict access to the territory as part of the fortifications of Gibraltar. It was originally a marshy area known as the Morass at the far south-western end of the isthmus, occupying the area adjacent to the north-western flank of the Rock of Gibraltar. The Morass was dug out and expanded to create an artificial lake which was further obstructed by iron and wooden obstacles in the water. Two small fortifications on either side controlled access to Gibraltar. The only road to and from the town ran along a narrow causeway between the Inundation and the sea which was enfiladed by batteries mounted on the lower slopes of the Rock. The Inundation existed for about 200 years before it was infilled and built over after the Second World War.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Inundation, Gibraltar (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Inundation, Gibraltar
Sortie Road, Gibraltar

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N 36.147258 ° E -5.349093 °
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Sortie Road

Sortie Road
GX11 1AA Gibraltar
Gibraltar
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Gibraltar Neutral Ground and Inundation
Gibraltar Neutral Ground and Inundation
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Operation Flavius
Operation Flavius

Operation Flavius (also referred to as the Gibraltar killings) was a military operation in which three members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) were controversially shot dead by the British Special Air Service (SAS) in Gibraltar on 6 March 1988. The trio were believed to be planning a car bomb attack on British military personnel in Gibraltar. They were shot dead while leaving the territory, having parked a car. All three were found to be unarmed, and no bomb was discovered in the car, leading to accusations that the British government had conspired to murder them. An inquest in Gibraltar ruled that the authorities had acted lawfully but the European Court of Human Rights held that, although there had been no conspiracy, the planning and control of the operation was so flawed as to make the use of lethal force almost inevitable. The deaths were the first in a chain of violent events in a fourteen-day period. On 16 March, the funeral of the three IRA members was attacked, leaving three mourners dead. At the funeral of one, two British soldiers were killed after driving into the procession in error. In late 1987, British authorities became aware of an IRA plan to detonate a bomb outside the governor's residence in Gibraltar. On the day of the shootings, known IRA member Seán Savage was seen parking a car near the assembly area for the parade; fellow members Daniel McCann and Mairéad Farrell were seen crossing the border shortly afterwards. As SAS personnel moved to intercept the three, Savage split from McCann and Farrell and ran south. Two soldiers pursued Savage while two others approached McCann and Farrell. The soldiers reported seeing the IRA members make threatening movements when challenged, so the soldiers shot them multiple times. All three were found to be unarmed, and Savage's car did not contain a bomb, though a second car, containing explosives, was later found in Spain. Two months after the shootings, the documentary "Death on the Rock" was broadcast on British television. Using reconstructions and eyewitness accounts, it presented the possibility that the three IRA members had been unlawfully killed. The inquest into the deaths began in September 1988. The authorities stated that the IRA team had been tracked to Málaga, where they were lost by the Spanish police, and that the three did not re-emerge until Savage was seen parking his car in Gibraltar. The soldiers testified that they believed the suspected bombers had been reaching for weapons or a remote detonator. Several eyewitnesses recalled seeing the three shot without warning, with their hands up, or while they were on the ground. One witness, who told "Death on the Rock" he saw a soldier fire at Savage repeatedly while he was on the ground, retracted his statement at the inquest, prompting an inquiry into the programme which largely vindicated it. The inquest returned a verdict of lawful killing. Dissatisfied, the families took the case to the European Court of Human Rights. Delivering its judgement in 1995, the court found that the operation had been in violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights as the authorities' failure to arrest the suspects at the border, combined with the information given to the soldiers, rendered the use of lethal force almost inevitable. The decision is cited as a landmark case in the use of force by the state.

Prince's Lines
Prince's Lines

The Prince's Lines are part of the fortifications of Gibraltar, situated on the lower slopes of the north-west face of the Rock of Gibraltar. They are located at a height of about 70 feet (21 m) on a natural ledge above the Queen's Lines, overlooking the landward entrance to Gibraltar, and run from a natural fault called the Orillon to a cliff at the southern end of the isthmus linking Gibraltar with Spain. The lines face out across the modern Laguna Estate, which stands on the site of the Inundation, an artificial lake created to obstruct landward access to Gibraltar. They were constructed to enfilade attackers approaching Gibraltar's Landport Front from the landward direction. A fortification constructed by the Spanish or Moors appears to have existed on the site before the British capture of Gibraltar in 1704, but the Lines were principally constructed during the 18th century. They were first laid out in 1720, and a stone stepped communication passage was later built to connect them with the Queen's Lines. William Green carried out major improvements after 1761, repairing the parapets, scarping the cliff, repairing the banquets and parapets and smoothing the ditches with mortar. To prevent shells and rubble rolling into the Lines from behind, dry rubble walls were constructed to their rear. The glacis in front of the Lines was also cleared of boulders and crevices were infilled to deny enemy soldiers any shelter. A bombproof barracks, magazine and cookhouse were built at the same time. During the construction of the Lines, an "entire human skeleton" was discovered fossilised in the rock but was blown to pieces by a miner. Nothing else is recorded about this find, but only a few decades later, the first known Neanderthal skull was found nearby.The Lines saw action during the Thirteenth Siege of Gibraltar (1726–27), when they mounted two cannon and several swivel guns which were reported to have caused heavy casualties among the attacking Spanish force. During the Anglo-Spanish War of 1761–63, they mounted two 9-pdrs and five 6-pdrs, and by 1770 they could accommodate up to fifty wall-mounted guns using sockets cut into the eastern end of the parapet's crest. A communication gallery was cut in 1790. The Lines were bombarded again during the Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779–83). On 11 June 1782, a Spanish shell exploded inside the magazine of Princess Anne's Battery further up the Rock, causing a massive explosion that blew the flank of the battery into the Prince's Lines, killing fourteen soldiers. Hanover Battery stands at the west end of the Lines. At the eastern end of the Lines are Lower Forbes Battery and Prince's Lines Battery, which was repurposed during the Second World War to mount a searchlight housed inside a cantilevered iron cupola. The parapet of the Lines was raised during the war to provide loopholes for rifles, with a second wall added behind and the space roofed over with concrete. The Lines are still mostly intact but have been abandoned and are now in a state of overgrown disrepair.

Queen's Lines
Queen's Lines

The Queen's Lines are a set of fortified lines, part of the fortifications of Gibraltar, situated on the lower slopes of the north-west face of the Rock of Gibraltar. They occupy a natural ledge which overlooks the landward entrance to Gibraltar and were an extension to the north-east of the King's Lines. They run from a natural fault called the Orillon to a cliff above the modern Laguna Estate, which stands on the site of the Inundation, an artificial lake created to obstruct landward access to Gibraltar. The Prince's Lines run immediately behind and above them on a higher ledge. All three of the Lines were constructed to enfilade attackers approaching Gibraltar's Landport Front from the landward direction. The Lines were built in 1788 but the Spanish or Moors seem to have constructed a much earlier irregular defensive wall on the same site, as depicted in a 1627 map by Don Luis Bravo de Acuña. The Lines run along what had been an access path up to the Granada Gate. During the tenure of William Green as Gibraltar's Senior Engineer from 1761–83, the Lines were repaired, improved and fortified, and the cliffs below were scarped to make them impossible to climb.They are connected to the King's Lines via a communication gallery completed on 13 September 1782, and to the Prince's Lines via another gallery constructed in 1790. They saw action during the Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779–83) when the Lines were a principal target for Spanish gun batteries; during a heavy bombardment in September 1782, they suffered significant damage.At the far end of the Queen's Lines is the Queen's Lines Battery, which mounted one 12-pdr between 1781–1834. The gun was then replaced by an 8-inch brass howitzer, and between 1859–89 a ten-inch howitzer and three 24-pdr carronades were mounted there. Behind the Lines three tunnels called the Queen's Lines Galleries were dug out in 1789 to provide bomb-proof shelters. At the eastern end of the Lines, Queen's Advance and Queen's Lookout (built in 1727) provide views out over the isthmus between Gibraltar and Spain.

King's Lines
King's Lines

The King's Lines are a walled rock-cut trench on the lower slopes of the north-west face of the Rock of Gibraltar. Forming part of the Northern Defences of the fortifications of Gibraltar, they were originally created some time during the periods when Gibraltar was under the control of the Moors or Spanish. They are depicted in a 1627 map by Don Luis Bravo de Acuña, which shows their parapet following a tenaille trace. The lines seem to have been altered subsequently, as maps from the start of the 18th century show a more erratic course leading from the Landport, Gibraltar's main land entrance, to the Round Tower, a fortification at their western end. A 1704 map by Johannes Kip calls the Lines the "Communication Line of the Round Tower".In 1704, an Anglo-Dutch force captured Gibraltar in the name of Charles, Archduke of Austria who claimed the crown of Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession. The Lines were named after him. They saw use during the Twelfth Siege of Gibraltar (1704–5), when the Spanish and their French allies succeeded in breaching the defences but were repelled; during the Thirteenth Siege (1727), when they were bombarded by the Spanish; and during the Great Siege (1779–83), when they were again under Spanish bombardment. During the tenure of William Green as Gibraltar's Senior Engineer from 1761 to 1783, the Lines were repaired, improved and fortified, and the cliffs below were scarped to make them impossible to climb. Facing west towards the Bay of Gibraltar, they were intended to make it possible to enfilade any attacking force trying to reach the gates of Gibraltar; they are connected to the Queen's Lines via a communication gallery completed on 13 September 1782. Following the Great Siege, the British bored a tunnel called the Hanover Gallery to connect the King's Lines to the Landport near No. 3 Castle Battery. A communication trench was also dug to the nearby Prince's Lines. Behind the King's Lines, the British dug a tunnel, called the King's Gallery, which ran parallel with the Lines to link them to the Queen's Lines and could be used as a bombproof shelter.Together with the Landport Front defences, the three sets of Lines constituted such a formidable obstacle that the Spanish called the landward approach to Gibraltar el boca de fuego, the "mouth of fire". A British clergyman, William Robertson, recorded his impressions of the Lines from his visit there in 1841: The lower lines consist of two lines of excavations, one above the other, communicating by subterranean passages and stairs. They are much shorter than the upper lines, and as excavations less remarkable, but as batteries they are far more formidable, and are considered exquisite specimens of fortification. The batteries here are not subterranean, like this in the upper lines, but stand out from the face of the rock; but the communications are chiefly excavated through the rock, in which there is also hollowed out a spacious hall for a mess-room, and, in fact, a complete barrack for the soldiers. The King's Lines were used as an artillery platform for over 200 years. During the Anglo-Spanish War of 1762–3, five 9-pdrs and one 6-pdr were recorded as being mounted on the Lines. Two 14-gun positions were established on the Lines for the Great Siege, at a point which was called either King's Battery or Black Battery. During World War II the Lines were redeveloped with a second wall built behind the parapet and the resulting space roofed over, to provide positions for machine guns and Hotchkiss anti-tank guns. The Lines are now abandoned, overgrown and not officially open to the public, although they have been described as "not merely one of the most, [but] perhaps the most, hauntingly vivid experiences of a visit to Gibraltar . . . [standing] comparison with some of the most famous military sites in the world." As John Harris of the Royal Institute of British Architects has put it, they are "capable of providing one of the great architectural experiences in the western world . . . the atmosphere of the Great Siege is vivid and evocative in the extreme." The Gibraltar Conservation Society proposed a £500,000 scheme in the early 1980s to preserve and reopen the Lines and the surrounding batteries, galleries and bombproof magazines, but the scheme did not go ahead and the Lines have continued to be neglected and vandalised despite being scheduled as an Ancient Monument. It is possible to visit the King's Lines with guided tours, the area has been cleaned up and prepared for this.