The Pillars of Hercules Arabic: أعمدة هرقل, Spanish: Columnas de Hércules was a phrase that was applied in Antiquity to a promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. The northern Pillar, Calpe Mons, is the Rock of Gibraltar. A corresponding North African peak not being predominant, the identity of the southern Pillar, Abila Mons, has been disputed throughout history, with the two near likely candidates being Monte Hacho in Ceuta & Jebel Musa in Morocco.
In Inferno XXVI Dante Alighieri mentions Ulysses in the pit of the Fraudulent Counsellors & his voyage past the Pillars of Hercules. Ulysses justifies endangering his sailors by the fact that his goal is to gain knowledge of the unknown. After five months of navigation in the ocean, Ulysses sights the mountain of Purgatory but encounters a whirlwind from it that sinks his ship and any on it for their daring to approach Purgatory while alive, by their strength and wits alone.
The Pillarsprominently on the engraved label page of Sir Francis Bacon's Instauratio Magna "Great Renewal", 1620, an unfinished hit of which the second element was his influential Novum Organum. The motto along the base says Multi pertransibunt et augebitur scientia "Many will pass through and cognition will be the greater". The conviction was based on the usage of the pillars in Spanish and Habsburg propaganda.
On the Spanish coast at Los Barrios are Torres de Hercules which are twin towers that were inspired by the Pillars of Hercules. These towers were the tallest in Andalusia until Cajasol Tower was completed in Seville in 2015.
In the southern wall of the Juan O'Gorman, portrays a depiction of the Pillars of Hercules as an allusion to the colonial past of Mexico and the institution of Charles V.