Straits of Gibraltar in the context of "Fathom"

Prince Henry of Portugal, Duke of Viseu (Portuguese: Infante Dom Henrique; 4 March 1394 – 13 November 1460), better known as Prince Henry the Navigator (Portuguese: Infante Dom Henrique, o Navegador), was a Portuguese prince and a central figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire and in the 15th-century European maritime exploration. Through his administrative direction, he is regarded as the main initiator of what would be known as the Age of Discovery. Henry was the fourth child of King John I of Portugal, who founded the House of Aviz.

After procuring the new caravel ship, Henry was responsible for the early development of Portuguese exploration and maritime trade with other continents through the systematic exploration of Western Africa, the islands of the Atlantic Ocean, and the search for new routes. He encouraged his father to conquer Ceuta (1415), the Muslim port on the North African coast across the Straits of Gibraltar from the Iberian Peninsula. He learned of the opportunity offered by the Saharan trade routes that terminated there, and became fascinated with Africa in general; he was most intrigued by the Christian legend of Prester John and the expansion of Portuguese trade. He is regarded as the patron of Portuguese exploration. He is also considered to be one of the most responsible for developing the slave trade in Western Europe. The prince died on 13 November 1460 in Vila do Bispo, Algarve.

The Battle of the Strait (Spanish: Batalla del Estrecho) was a military conflict contesting the ports in the Straits of Gibraltar taking place in the late thirteenth century and the first half of the fourteenth. The conflict involves principally the Spanish Muslim Emirate of Granada, the Spanish Christian Crown of Castile and the North African Muslim Marinid state. The ports' strategic value came from their position linking Spain and North Africa, thus connecting Muslims in Spain with the rest of the Islamic world. The campaign had mixed results. Castile gained Tarifa permanently, and managed to take Gibraltar and Algeciras but both would revert to Muslim rule. Castile also failed to gain any port in the African side of the strait.

The genetic history of North Africa encompasses the genetic history of the people of North Africa. The most important source of gene flow to North Africa from the Neolithic Era onwards was from Western Asia, while the Sahara desert to the south and the Mediterranean Sea to the north were also important barriers to gene flow from sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Europe in prehistory. However, North Africa is connected to Western Asia via the Isthmus of Suez and the Sinai peninsula, while at the Straits of Gibraltar, North Africa and Europe are separated by only 15 km (9 mi), similarly Malta, Sicily, Canary Islands, Lampedusa and Crete are close to the coasts of North Africa, with the indigenous Guanche people of the Canary Islands being Berber.

North Africa is a genetically heterogenous and diverse region, and is characterized by its diverse ethnic groups, the main ones being Arabs, Berbers and Copts (in Egypt). North African populations show a complex and heterogeneous genetic structure that has been described as an amalgam of at least four different ancestral components from the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and also indigenous North Africans who are genetically distinct from these three. Although North Africa has experienced gene flows from the surrounding regions, it has also experienced long periods of genetic isolation. Some genetic studies have been criticised for their interpretation and categorisation of African genetic data.