After crossing the Río Barbates the road passes through the Sierra del Niño and 50km/31mi from Vejer de la Frontera reaches Tarifa (alt. 8m/25ft), the most southerly town in Spain. Thanks to the town's strategic situation on the Straits of Gibraltar, its possession was often hotly contested in the course of its history. There was a settlement
here in Iberian and Phoenician times, and the town was known to the Romans as Julia Traducta. The Visigoths embarked here in A.D. 429 for the conquest of the Roman province of Africa. Possession of the town was particularly important to the Arabs and it was fortified by Tarif ben Malik. Tarifa is now a fishing port with a considerable foodstuffs industry. Europe's largest wind power station (250 towers 30MW capacity) has been operational here since 1993).
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