I love an island that is located right where an island shouldn't be. That is the case with Isla Alboran. Currently owned by Spain, it is located midway between southern Spain and northern Morocco, right where an island shouldn't be.
Isla Alboran - Multimap Location
I've known about this very small island for some time, but have not been able to find a decent mappable aerial image, let alone, a nautical chart. Finally, I've located a fair aerial image and an excellent image of a NGA NOAA nautical chart of the island. Using these two sources, I created an EEVS precision map of the island at a scale of 1:5,000, to share with EVS Island readers. The source images and EEVS precision map follows.
Isla Alboran - NGA NOAA Nautical Chart (Chart Number Unknown)
Isla Alboran - Untitled and Undated Aerial Photograph
Isla Alboran - EEVS Precision Map from NGA NOAA Nautical Chart (1:5,000)
Isla Alboran has a long history of short visits by Phonecian, Greek, Arab, Venitian, British, pirates and Spanish sailors. They all have made use of this island. Some established navigation warning devices. Others used the island as a base of operation to attack passing ships, as this area is at the center of a rather busy shipping lane. The latest owners, Spain, maintain a functioning lighthouse on the western end of the island.
The interesting information about this island comes from an individual who visited the 36N 3W confluence back in 2003. He gathered a great deal of information about the island and posted it on his confluence report.
The map was very easy to construct. Once the NGA NOAA nautical chart image was georeferenced, I digitized shorelines and reefs using Global Mapper and completed the map using Marplot. It took a total of 3-hours from start to finish. Not necessarily a difficult effort, but thanks to Captian Peter and E. Beniga and their wonderful images, I was able to produce a useful vector map of this isolated Mediterranean island.
Enjoy!
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