The Moorish Castle in Gibraltar

You can see the Moorish Castle part way up the Rock on the northwest side.

It is not known for sure when the first Castle was built in this area, but the structure that stands today was rebuilt in the 14th century.  The recorded history of Gibraltar shows that the Moors occupied the area the longest, for about 700 years.

Construction of the Moorish Castle Gibraltar

The majority of the construction is made of “tapia” a cement that is molded in frames, then covered again in a fine cement mixture.  Due to multiple sieges, the tower has been repaired and modeled multiple times over the years.  You can still see some dents on the outer walls of the tower from canon fire.

You can see how massive the walls are and how this helped the tower withstand multiple sieges and multiple centuries.

Several of the rooms of the castle had amazing ceiling detail.  See photos above and below.

Dave often gets told to mind his head since many of the doors are just to short for him.

The stairs are arranged in a clockwise direction around the central shaft of the tower.  This is to give the defenders of the castle, an advantage with their sword arms and the attackers a disadvantage with their parries.

One of the rooms in the tower was a bathing room with an adjacent room for the furnace and hot water.  The floor canals shown in the above photo, lead out of the tower to drain off the used water.

The top of the castle tower has great views of Gibraltar.

You can read more about the Moorish Castle Gibraltar on this link to the Gibraltar travel guide.

Visiting the Moorish Castle Gibraltar

The entrance fee is £10 pounds for people over 12 years old and £5 for kids.  This ticket also includes entrance to 5 other attractions.