Gibraltar – The Map Room https://www.maproomblog.com Blogging about maps since 2003 Thu, 02 Jul 2020 16:53:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.maproomblog.com/xq/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/cropped-logo-2017-04-32x32.jpg Gibraltar – The Map Room https://www.maproomblog.com 32 32 116787204 Remains of Lost Fortifications in Gibraltar Found Thanks to 18th-Century Map https://www.maproomblog.com/2020/07/remains-of-lost-fortifications-in-gibraltar-found-thanks-to-18th-century-map/ Thu, 02 Jul 2020 16:53:43 +0000 https://www.maproomblog.com/?p=1788961 More]]> The remains of a fortified wall, originally part of Gibraltar’s northern defences but since lost to rubble, vegetation and time, was re-discovered and excavated thanks to an eighteenth-century map of the territory held by the British Library.

The map clearly indicated the location of the Hanover Wall, which had stretched from the Tower of Homage—the Moorish castle at the pinnacle of the defences—down to the Hanover Batteries lower down the Rock, but whose location had been lost. The Hanover Wall appears (under another name) on other maps at least as far back as 1627, when Spain held Gibraltar.

Workers directed by Carl quickly found the remains of the wall, which remained intact, although fully submerged under dirt and foliage. The efforts of these men revealed the long-lost wall, a critical part of the Northern Defences which had been lost amidst the rapid changes in Gibraltar throughout the 20th Century.

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