As one approaches Port Mahon by sea, the modern naval station on Cap Mola lies to starboard, and on one's left is the spot where the formidable Fort St Philip once stood; scarcely a vestige remains.
At its entrance, Port Mahon is only 225m wide (250yd), with a depth of 8 fathoms; but this widens to a maximum of 900m (l,000yd) and deepens to 16 fathoms. It is 5.4km (6,000yd) long. It is thus almost landlocked, and its popularity with sailing ships as a refuge from Mediterranean storms is readily understood; for the tramontana is no respecter of persons, and the almost tideless  sea is quickly whipped to fury. The only trouble appears to have been in leaving when the wind fell, or when it was blowing onshore. In the sixteenth century the famous Venetian Admiral Andrea Doria expressed this succinctly in the following couplet: .

Junio, Julio, Agosto y Puerto Mahon 
Los mejores puertos del Mediterraneo son. 
(June, July, August and Port Mahon 
are the best ports in the Mediterranean.)

Entering the port one passes several islets. The first is New Quarantine Island, also known as Lazareto, which formed a peninsula until 1900. It is hardly 'new'; its high surrounding walls were built to prevent escape of infection! It has a unique circular chapel with an altar in its centre, and small barred cells for the sick around the periphery. The parson took no chances.

 The small seaport of Villa Carlos (Es Castell) on the left, around the bay of Cala Fons, and formerly known as Georgetown, was built by the British shortly after 1763. Almost opposite it, in mid-stream, lies the Isla Plana or Old Quarantine Island, once an American naval base. The third islet, round which early-morning water skiers skim, has an even more interesting history. The Isla del Rey, or King's Island, has three main claims to interest. A mosaic floor of its former Roman villa can be seen in Mahon's museum; King Alphonso III of Aragon landed on it in 1287, when Minorca first became Spanish; and it was later the site of the British hospital in the eighteenth century, when the troops christened it 'Bloody Island'. 
 

On the hillside to the left stands the red Georgian villa of El Fonduco (now an hotel), which was Admiral Collingwood's residence towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars. On the opposite side of the port, high on its hillside and surrounded by yellow gorse, is the still more famous and noble vIlla of San Antonio or 'Golden Farm'. It commands a magnificent view of the whole port, and it was here that Nelson stayed on one of his visits to Port Mahon. Next comes the inlet of Cala Figuera on the left, known in the eighteenth century as 'English Cove'. It was the watering-place of the British Navy.
Soon, the capital town of Mahon comes into view; perched high on a cliff above the quay, the church of Santa Maria dominating the skyline. Dazzlingly white, Mahon has a typically Mediterranean aspect, though closer acquaintance reveals many familiar British traits.
 
 
 
 

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