Spain shares a land border with which African country, via its autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla?

The correct answer is Morocco, since Spain's two autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla sit on the northern coast of the African continent and are directly bordered by Moroccan territory, creating a rare land frontier between a European Union member state and Africa. Ceuta borders Morocco near the Strait of Gibraltar, while Melilla lies further east along the Mediterranean coast, and both cities have been under Spanish control for centuries, with Ceuta held since 1580 and Melilla since 1497, predating the modern Moroccan state itself. Morocco has historically disputed Spanish sovereignty over these territories, considering them part of its own national territory, which keeps this border a subject of ongoing diplomatic sensitivity and a recurring current-affairs topic. Among the distractors, Algeria lies to the east of Morocco along the North African coast and does not border either Ceuta or Melilla, though its proximity within the same region makes it a plausible-sounding wrong answer. Tunisia sits further east still, sharing no border with any Spanish territory, and is more commonly associated with its own Mediterranean coastline and history rather than Iberian geopolitics. Libya lies even further along North Africa's coast, entirely unconnected to Spain's enclaves, and functions here purely as a geographically distant distractor to test whether students can correctly place North African nations relative to one another. A frequent exam confusion is assuming any North African country could border Spanish territory since all these nations lie along the same coastal belt, when in fact only Morocco's specific geography places it directly adjacent to Ceuta and Melilla. The revision takeaway: Morocco alone borders Spain on land, through Ceuta and Melilla, making Spain the only EU country with a land frontier in Africa.