Benzú facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Benzú
Population unit
Location of Benzú within Ceuta
Benzú Location in Spain
Country	Spain
Autonomous city	Ceuta
Population  (2019)
• Total	1,221
Demonym(s)	Benzueño (male) Benzueña (female)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166-2	ES-CE
Postal code	51004
Official language	Spanish

Benzú is a small village located in Ceuta, a Spanish city in North Africa. It's a part of Spain, even though it's on the African continent. In 2011, about 1,987 people lived there.

About Benzú

The Moroccan mountain of Jebel Musa, seen from Benzú.

Benzú is in the northwest part of Ceuta, right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It's very close to the border with Morocco. The village has around 1,200 residents, and its population has grown a little over the last ten years.

Benzú has the last beach you'll find before reaching the border with Morocco. Nearby, there's a small Moroccan community called Belyounech. From Benzú, you can clearly see the mountain of Jebel Musa. People in the area sometimes call this mountain the "Dead Woman" because its shape looks like a woman lying down.

A Look at History

The entrance to the ancient cave of Benzú.

Benzú is home to some amazing rock shelters and caves. These caves show signs that people lived there a very long time ago, during the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) and Neolithic (New Stone Age) periods.

Scientists have found seven different layers of human activity in these caves. Some of these layers date back as far as 250,000 years! The discoveries suggest that the Straits of Gibraltar (the narrow water passage between Spain and Morocco) might have been a bridge for early humans, not a barrier.

The different layers in the cave also show how stone tools changed over time. These tools were made from materials like flint, sandstone, and radiolarite. Many of them were scrapers, used for working with wood and animal hides. What's really cool is that the tools found in Benzú are very similar to those found in caves in Gibraltar, mainland Spain, and around Tangier. This suggests that early humans in these areas shared similar ways of life and technology.

The N-354 and N-362 roads connect Benzú to the main city of Ceuta.

Population Numbers

Here's how the population of Benzú has changed over the years:

See also

In Spanish: Benzú para niños