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Geography
Spain is a Western European country with a population of about 46 million people spread over an area of 505 955 km2, with most of the population living in the coastal areas and big cities. It is bordered on the West by Portugal and on the Northeast by France and the Pyrenees. The political and administrative capital is Madrid, located in the center of the country, with an approximate population of 6 million, while Barcelona (4.8 million), on the Northeast shores, is the country’s cultural and financial capital. This is also one of one the most cosmopolitan cities in the continent, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors coming from all corners of Europe and the Americas every year. Other important urban centers include Valencia on the Mediterranean coast, Malaga, Bilbao, Saragossa, and Seville, the Andalusian capital, in the South. The national language is Spanish. The state religion, ever so influential in people’s daily life, is Catholicism.
Most of the territory is on the Iberian Peninsula, while the rest – roughly 12500 km2 – are islands (the Canaries and Balearics). Lying on the African coast, the cities of Ceuta and Melilla cover an area of about 32 km2.
Geographically speaking, the Spanish territory is divided into many different regions. The average altitude is relatively elevated at about 650 meters – double the European average. The highest peaks are Teide (3718 m) on Tenerife Island, and Mulhacen (3478 m), in the southern province of Grenada. The coastal areas differ greatly from each other, belonging to different weather systems centered on separate seas and oceans. The elevated central plateau (the Meseta de Castile) is itself further divided into two sub-plateaus (North and South), and fractioned by the mountains of the central range and the Toledo Mountains. The waterways of Castile-Leon offer visitors the chance to explore the country’s wilderness via a well-developed river network. One such interesting site to discover from the water is Arribes del Duero National Park, split between Salamanca and Zamora provinces in Southwest Castile. Some of Europe’s longest and deepest canyons can be found here, with gigantic walls rising to more than 200 meters in height. This vast central plateau is flanked by other mountain ranges: the Cantabrian Mountains in the North, where many magnificent caves are now open to the public, and the Sierra Morena to the south, next to Guadalquivir valley. Three other mountain ranges add to the country’s mountainous landscape: the Basque and Catalonian Mountains, and the Pyrenees, separated from the rest of the Iberian mountains by the Ebro valley. Aside from continental Spain, the Canary Islands form a mountainous archipelago of volcanic origin off the shores of Morocco whose highest peaks include Tenerife and Gran Canaria. As for the Balearics, they present a varied landscape that includes the Sierra de Tramuntana in Majorca, the lowlands of Minorque, and Ibiza’s gentle geography. These archipelagos are among Southern Europe’s most popular tourist destinations, offering a wide range of activities, including hiking in the islands’ wilder regions, golf, parasailing, spelunking, swimming, snorkeling, and other water sports, among others. On top of that, Spain has created a few National Parks across the country to protect its abundant, untamed, and powerful nature.
