Cape Three Forks

File:Vista de Melilla desde el Kol-La, con el cabo Tres Forcas al fondo.jpg

Cape Three Forks as seen from the highlands over Melilla to its south

File:Cape Tres Forcas in Morocco.png

Location in Morocco.

Cape Three Forks, Cape des Trois Fourches, or Cape Tres Forcas is a headland on the Mediterranean coast of northeastern Morocco.

Geography

The cape is a large mountainous promontory of North Africa into the Mediterranean Sea. For centuries, this cape has provided both a nautical landmark and a maritime hazard for ships in the Alboran Sea. The Spanish exclave of Melilla surrounds a smaller cape on the eastern side of the peninsula.

Names

File:Prima Affrice Tabula.jpg

Ptolemy's 1st African map, showing Roman Mauretania Tingitana

In antiquity, the cape was known to the Phoenicians and Carthaginians as Rusadir (Template:Langx, ršʾdr),Template:Sfnp giving its name to a nearby port (now Melilla). The name meant "Powerful"Template:Sfnp or "High Cape", but can also be understood as "Cape of the Powerful One", in reference to Baal, Tanit, and other important Punic deities.Template:Sfnp It was known to the Romans as Cape Metagonites (Template:Langx).

Cape Three Forks is known in Spanish as , in French as , and in Arabic as Raʾs ith-Thalāth ash-Shawkāt or Raʾs Thalātha Madari, all meaning "Cape of the Three Forks".

It was also known in Arabic as "Raʾs Uarc".

History

On 26 August 1923 the ran aground and eventually wrecked on the cape.

Lighthouse

File:Faro del Cabo de Tres Forcas.jpg

Cape Three Forks Lighthouse.

A lighthouse is located in the north end of the cape. It is a gray tower on white two-story dwelling.

Maraboutism

At least 11 locations in the Cape Three Forks have been identified as places of pious reflection, either small hermitages, bushes or trees, five of them featuring the tomb of the marabout.

Ecology

Template:Designation list Cape Three Forks is a Ramsar designated site with no. 1473. It hosts different species, some of them threatened, such as the monk seal, two species of limpets (Patella ferruginea and Patella nigra), the loggerhead turtle, the fin whale and two species of dolphin (Tursiops truncatus and Delphinus delphis). The main activities taking place in the area are fishing and tourism.

References

Bibliography

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External links

• Cape Tres Forcas on Wikimapia