Cities reflecting their shadow in the sea -1-

Few are those cities separated by the sea from their country to which they belong, in reality, not in history. They are cities that enveloped their estrangement, until estrangement turned into a home, cities that still reflect their shadow in the sea, and keep calling for its blue, so they are not able to cross the other enemy, nor are they happy to return. To the first pastures, and perhaps the cities of “Ceuta and Melilla” are a model for those cities drenched in water ornaments. They were among the history lessons in the first classes, the case of “Ceuta and Melilla” occupied from the Moroccan lands. The two names circulated in the course of events, even in a year, I decided to visit them out of curiosity, trying to remember the first lessons of history, and discovering strange cities. It was the first steps towards the city of Ceuta, which was occupied by Portugal in 1415 AD, before the fall of Andalusia, and the weakness of the kings of the sects from Al-Ahmar was built, to become a starting point for the Crusades, after it was a breach of the Islamic conquests, and then Melilla, which Spain occupied five years after the fall of Granada, i.e. in 1497 AD, and “Ceuta” played a role in Spain’s occupation of Portugal, and then extended its control over Ceuta” to concede, forcing Portugal to To negotiate with Spain to recognize its independence under British auspices in exchange for Portugal ceding “Ceuta”, in 1668 AD, under the Treaty of “Lisbon”. A hundred campaigns were launched to expel the colonizer from it. “Mawla Ismail” thirty-four years as the longest siege in history, and “Mawla Muhammad bin Abdullah” besieged the city of Melilla, but due to the immunity of its majestic castle above that high hill, the city prevented them. The area of ​​“Ceuta” is 20 square kilometers, and its population is about 77 One thousand people, while Melilla’s area is 12 square kilometers, and its population is 70,000. The Moroccan presence is the least due to the policies followed, as they are not occupiers, according to the United Nations.
That same summer, I decided to forcibly enter these two cities, to dispel curiosity and mystery, and what I was hearing about from afar, and during the conflicts in the news, it was an adventure without any foreshadowing or investigation, for the prior picture of them is not clear, and I do not know which character is predominantly Moroccan or Spanish. Which of the prevailing languages, was the entry to them through the land ports, and you know how miserable those wild Arab borders are everywhere, you only feel a remote city, and many ruins receive you, and there is a popular trade that is smuggling for everything, and if smuggling is the master, then bribery She is the lady of the shrine, there is clear misery that accompanies you until you enter the Spanish border, when you feel the displacement of something heavy that was kneeling on the chest, and you do not know what it is? Is it the skepticism and suspicion that attaches itself to any foreign visitor to the place, as if it is inevitably a smuggler, or is it the nature, and characteristic of the land borders of these Arab cities? Tomorrow we will continue…