Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña (literally Holy Cross of the Little Sea) was a 15th century Spanish settlement close to Akhfennir, in the Tarfaya Province, in Morocco.
The importance of the settlement was derived from its position in the trans-Saharan slave trade, and captives were shipped to sugar plantations on the Canary Islands.
In the wake of the visit of a Spanish delegation to Fez in 1877, a joint Hispano-Moroccan committee was created in order to determine the location of Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña.
[3] This committee eventually misidentified Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña with Ifni,[3] actually located about 480 kilometers north of the real fortress.
The only remains of the 15th century settlement are the foundations of an 8-meter side square fortified tower of Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña.