STRAIT OF GIBRALTAR • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Strait of Gibraltar

... note: Azores and Madeira Islands occupy strategic locations along western sea approaches to Strait of Gibraltar ...

— The 2004 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... for example, the great overland route from Europe to Asia. Despite its name, its real highway is on the waters of the Mediterranean and Red Seas. It has three gates,—three alone. They are the narrow strait of Gibraltar, fifteen miles wide, that place where the Mediterranean narrows between Sicily and Africa to less than a hundred miles wide, and the strait of Bab-el-mandeb, seventeen miles wide. England holds the keys to every one of these gates. Count them,—Gibraltar, ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. July, 1863, No. LXIX. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various