Chafarinas Islands

Plazas de soberanía. The Islas Chafarinas are on the right.

The Chafarinas Islands (Spanish: Islas Chafarinas, IPA: [ˈizlas tʃafaˈɾinas]; Arabic: Ya`fariyya‎; Berber: Takfarinas), also spelled Zafarin, Djaferin,^[1] Zafarani,^[2] is a Spanish archipelago. A group of three small islets located in the Alboran Sea off the coast of Morocco with an aggregate area of 0.525 km², 45 km to the east of Melilla and 3.3 km off the Moroccan town of Ra'su l-Ma'. The Chafarinas Islands are one of the Spanish ruled territories on North Africa off the Moroccan coast known as Plazas de soberanía.

The Chafarinas Islands are made up of three islands (with areas in hectares):

• Isla del Congreso (25.6 ha)
• Isla Isabel II (15.3 ha) (with garrison)
• Isla del Rey (11.6 ha)

Under Spanish control since 1847, there is a 190-man military garrison on Isla Isabel II, the only stable population on the small archipelago, down from 426 people in 1900 and 736 people in 1910.

The islands had a certain relevance in Spanish environmentalist circles during the 1980s and 1990s as the very last individual of Mediterranean Monk Seal in Spanish territory lived there, until it disappeared in the 1990s.^[3]

Gallery

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  19th-century Spanish map showing the "Chafarinas".

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  Present day image.

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  Islas Chafarinas.

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  Audouin's Gull, one of the numerous inhabitants on the islands.

References

1. ^ "Chafarinas Islands". Encyclopedia Britannica. 2011. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/104294/Chafarinas-Islands. Retrieved September 7, 2011. 
2. ^ "Index of Countries and Localities". USPS. 2011. http://pe.usps.com/text/imm/immctry.htm. Retrieved September 7, 2011. 
3. ^ Foca monje del Mediterráneo | CONSUMER.es EROSKI

See also

• Plazas de soberanía
• List of Spanish Colonial Wars in Morocco
• Spanish Morocco

Coordinates: 35°11′N 2°26′W / 35.183°N 2.433°W / 35.183; -2.433