Five and a half million years ago earth movements shook the continents allowing the Atlantic to break through between Europe and Africa in what geologists described as the world's greatest waterfall. These "Gibraltar Falls" roared into the arid Mediterranean basin for 100 years before the new Mediterranean Sea was born, The Atlantic commenced its never-ending role of topping up to compensate for the excess evaporation in the Mediterranean. This cataclysmic occurrence was perhaps one of the greatest geological events ever. Mythology tells us that Hercules hit the mountain with his club separating the two continents and making two pillars through which the Atlantic rushed in to fill the Mediterranean. The two pillars, according to mythology, were D'Jabal Musa and D'Jabal Tarik (mountain of Tarik, who invaded in 710 AD.) The English put Jabal and Tarik together and named the rock Gibraltar. The primitive men who landed at Gibraltar found the numerous caves ideal for rest in and protection from predators. They looked upon this mountain as a friendly haven offering food, water and shelter. Between 70,000 and 6,000 BC, (coinciding with the period of the last ice age and its immediate post-glacial period), the Neanderthal inhabited some of the 100 plus caves in The Rock. They left ample proof of their culture throughout many of these caves.
In 1848 a skull was found at a quarry on the sheer north face of Gibraltar. It belonged to a prehistoric being. Eight years later another one was discovered in the Neander Valley near Dusseldorf in Germany. Instead of Gibraltar Man it became known as Neanderthal Man. Caves in Gibraltar were home to these prehistoric people as far back as 120,000 years ago. The Neanderthals once roamed over much of Europe and the Middle East. As modern humans emerged, the Neanderthals became extinct. Gibraltar was probably one of the last places where these Neanderthals survived. The over 140 caves which had openings to the outside world made perfect shelters. The sea level was lower. Off the eastern cliffs of The Rock a large, flat, sandy plain stretched out towards the distant Mediterranean. It was excellent hunting grounds supporting rabbits, red deer, wild cattle and horse along with extinct species of elephant and rhinos. It was near paradise for the early inhabitants of Gibraltar. Many refer to Gibraltar as an island. Historically, biologically, even politically it has been an island even in recent times, but physically it is a peninsula. And it is a living one. The Rock is a carcass of living sea creatures - limestone. Its caves are still alive and dripping. Exactly how many cultures inhabited The Rock is not certain. Some used it as temporary shelter, others settled nearby, but it seems that for about 2,000 years after the last Neolithic settlers, the majority of the newcomers treated the Rock with great respect; they saw it as a sacred mountain. By 1,000 BC the Phoenicians had developed a truly impressive sea trade. They believed and spread the idea that to get beyond the Pillars of Hercules was to face certain death by falling off the end of the earth into the seething red cauldron where the sun sank every night. Their idea worked beyond their wildest dreams. Long after the Phoenicians ceased to exist, and for the next 2,500 years, the Pillars of Hercules marked the end of the known world, the "no beyond." The two pillars were D'Jabal Musa and D'Jabal Tarik (mountain of Tarik, who invaded in 710 AD.) The English put Jabal and Tarik together and named the rock Gibraltar. The No Beyond was so strong that when the Visigoths settled in what is modern day Spain, they adopted as part of their coat of arms this precise myth "Ne Plus Ultra." The European Pillar of Hercules had truly become the mountain of the Gods at the end of the known world.
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