Ceuta is a city/seaport on the Strait of Gibraltar, in the very top of North Africa, bordered also by Morocco. For administrative purposes Ceuta is governed as part of Cádiz Province in Spain. The city is on a headland consisting of seven peaks.

A military and penal station, Ceuta is on the site of a Carthaginian settlement on which a Roman colony was later built. Ceuta became an important center for the manufacture of brassware and for trade in slaves, gold, and ivory under later Berber and Spanish-Moorish rulers. The Portuguese captured the city in 1415 and the Spaniards in 1580.

Ceuta's population today is 79,000.

Same as Ceuta, Melilla is also a port in the northwestern Africa, administered as part of Málaga Province, on the Mediterranean Sea. Bordered by Morocco, Melilla consists of an older, walled town on a peninsula and modern buildings to the south and west. The main industries in the city are fish processing, boatbuilding, sawmilling, and flour milling.

Founded by the Phoenicians as Rusaddir, it was ruled by the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Byzantine Empire, and various Berber dynasties before being conquered by Spain in 1497. A revolt of army officers in the Melilla garrison in 1936 was a prelude to the Spanish Civil War.

Melilla's population today is 72,000.