Sam and companions travel by horseback and carriage to Algeciras, Vejer and San Fernando from Gibraltar, on October 18, 1867.
Mark Twain Project: Quaker City Itinerary
Algeciras' site was also that of Roman cities called Portus Albus ("White Harbor"), Caetaria (current Getares) and Iulia Traducta. In the later "Byzantine" period, the site would come to be known in Greek as Mesopotámenoi (Μεσοποτάμενοι), meaning "between rivers/canals". The Arabic name for the settlement founded after the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula was al-Jazīrah al-Khaḍrāʾ (الجزيرة الخضراء, "The Green Island"), in reference to Isla Verde.[4] Al-Jazīra(t) gave the modern Spanish Algeciras.[5]
The area of the city has been populated since prehistory, and the earliest remains belong to Neanderthal populations from the Paleolithic era.