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Morphology
Spain:
a country of great and varied landscape and geographical wealth.
Spain
is geographically divided into very distinct territories. It's average
altitude is high at 660 metres, in other words, two times the European
average. Its highest peaks are the Teide (3,718 metres), on the island of
Tenerife; the Mulhacén (3,478 m), in Granada; and the Aneto (3,404 m), in
the Pyrenees. The coasts have very diverse outlines, as they belong to
different climatic systems and are surrounded by different seas and
oceans. The overall structure of the Peninsula could be described as
follows. A great central high plateau (the Castilian plateau) cut into two
sub-plateaux (north and south) and divided by the Central and Toledo
mountain systems. This plateau is surrounded by other mountainous
structures on its periphery: the Galician massif, the Cantabrian mountain
range, the Iberian System and the Sierra Morena. Three exterior systems
define the mountainous structure of the Peninsula; they are the Pyrenean,
Andalusian and Catalan mountain ranges. The Canary Islands is the region
with the longest coastlines (1,583 km) and its land rises up over volcanic
accumulations. The Balearics, on the other hand, have a varied relief
composed of the Tramuntana mountain range in Mallorca, the low lands of
the island of Menorca -where the land level does not exceed 300 metres,
except in El Toro (355 m)- and the smooth relief of Ibiza, where the
highest altitudes are Sa Talaiassa (475 m) and the Puig Gros (415 m).
Geographical
location
Spain
covers an area of 505,955 square kilometres, which places it amongst the
fifty largest countries in the world.
The
largest part of the territory is located in the Iberian Peninsula, the
remainder, approximately 12,500 square kilometres, are islands, -Balearics
and the Canary Islands- plus 32 square kilometres that are accounted for
by the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, situated on the coast of Africa. The
situation of the Iberian Peninsula in the extreme south west of Europe and
only 14 kilometres away from the African continent, endows Spain with a
great strategic value: projecting into the Mediterranean on one side and
acting as an intersection on the path to Africa and America on the other.
The fact that a large part of Spain is peninsular also explains the length
of its coastline, which runs along the Atlantic Ocean and the
Mediterranean sea. As a result of its position, between 36 and 43 degrees
North latitude, the climate ranges from the mild oceanic climate in the
North, to the continental Mediterranean in the centre and the
Mediterranean in the East and South, factors which combine to create a wet
Spain in the North and mountainous areas, green Spain with luxuriant
forests and a dry Spain in the Mediterranean.
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