"A little bit of Spain in Northern Africa " a Melilla Travel Page by Ilya_Andriy

For centuries the city of Melilla has been an outpost of Spain because of its strategic location on the peninsula of Tres Forcas on Africa's Mediterranean coast. In ancient times the city was occupied by Phoenicians and Carthaginians before it was integrated into the Roman Empire in the first century. When the Moors conquered Spain, Melilla became part of the Caliphate of Cordoba and later reverted to the kingdom of Fes. Melilla declined in the Middle Ages, becoming a refuge for pirates, until it was conquered by the Catholic Kings at the end of the fifteenth century, and it has remained Spanish since then (1497). Subsequent monarchs repopulated and fortified the city, and in the eighteenth century Melilla was further secured by numerous fortresses that still ring the city.

Melilla is one of the two spanish cities (the other one is Ceuta) in northern africa.