Paleoanthropologists long thought that the peopling of Europe followed a route from North Africa through the Levant. But genetic data show that the DNA of today's western Eurasians resembles that of people in India. It's possible that an inland migration from Asia seeded Europe between 40 000 and 30 000 years ago.
 


Look at the inset map below, locating the area where Northwest Africa comes close to southern Spain. You can see why anthropologists assumed that people came to Europe across that narrow channel which is now known as the Strait of Gibraltar.