Note 25 — GOMES EANNES DE AZURARA; (continued 2)

(p. 16). The two cities, viz., The citadel and the lower town of Ceuta, which together covered the neck of a long peninsula running out some three miles eastward from the African mainland, and broadening again beyond the eastern wall of Ceuta into a hilly square of country. The citadel covered the isthmus which joined the peninsula to the mainland. East of the citadel was Almina, containing "the outer and larger division of the city, as well as the seven hills from which Ceuta derived its name," the highest of which was in the middle of the peninsula, and was called El Acho, from the fortress on its summit. "On the north side of the peninsula, from the citadel to the foot of this last-mentioned hill, the city was protected by another lofty wall." According to some, the old name of Septa was derived from the town's seven hills; it was ancient, being repaired, enlarged and re-fortified by Justinian in the course of his restoration of the Roman Empire in the Western Mediterranean.