Ancient limestone watchtower in Gibraltar, demolished in 1940, near Neanderthal finds.
Devil’s Tower was an ancient limestone watchtower in Gibraltar, part of its fortifications. Located near a rock shelter, it stood close to where fossil remains of a Neanderthal child and Palaeolithic tools were discovered in 1926. The tower was demolished in 1940 during World War II on military grounds.
Devil’s Tower, also known as the Devil’s Tower (Torre del Diablo), was an ancient limestone watchtower forming part of the fortifications of Gibraltar, in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It stood near the north‑eastern end of the Rock of Gibraltar, close to a rock shelter where fossil remains of a Neanderthal child and associated Palaeolithic tools were discovered. Although the tower and the human remains were geographically close, sources state that they were not related. The tower, constructed in limestone, was part of Gibraltar’s defensive system. During World War II it was demolished in 1940 on the orders of the Governor General Sir Noel Mason‑Macfarlane because it lay in the line of fire of one of Gibraltar’s guns. By then it was regarded as an old watchtower and a former element of the military structures of Gibraltar. In 1926 the archaeologist Dorothy Garrod excavated the nearby Mousterian rock shelter and uncovered the remains of a Neanderthal child, known as the Devil’s Tower skull or Gibraltar 2. The find, which included much of the lower jaw, frontal bone, most of the right side of the face and the left parietal bone, significantly reinforced evidence for Neanderthals in Gibraltar.
