At about 506,000 km², Spain is the second largest country in the European Union after France. It occupies about 85% of the Iberian Peninsula, which it shares with Portugal, Andorra and the British territory of Gibraltar, and includes two archipelagos, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands in the Atlantic off Africa, as well as the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the coast of Morocco. Administratively it is divided into 17 autonomous communities, 50 provinces and over 8,000 municipalities (see administrative divisions).
The Meseta and the mountains
The heart of the country is the Meseta, a vast plateau with an average altitude of 600 to 800 metres, home to Madrid, Europe's highest capital, and the cities of Castile. The Meseta is crossed by the Central System, with the Gredos and Guadarrama ranges, which separates Old Castile to the north from New Castile to the south.
The plateau is ringed by mountain ranges: to the north the Cantabrian Mountains, with the Picos de Europa rising above 2,600 metres; to the north-east the Pyrenees, the natural border with France, with Aneto (3,404 metres), the range's highest peak; to the east the Iberian System, separating the Meseta from the Ebro valley; to the south the Sierra Morena. Further south rise the Baetic Cordilleras, with the Sierra Nevada and Mulhacén (3,479 metres), the highest peak on the peninsula. The highest point in all of Spain, however, is the Teide volcano on Tenerife, at 3,715 metres. By average altitude, Spain is considered Europe's second most mountainous country after Switzerland.
Plains and rivers
There are few large plains: the biggest is the Guadalquivir depression in Andalusia, a triangular plain opening onto the Gulf of Cádiz; the other is the Ebro valley, between Aragon and Catalonia. Along the Mediterranean are fertile coastal plains such as the huerta of Valencia and Murcia.
Because the Meseta tilts westwards, the main rivers flow into the Atlantic: the Tagus, the longest on the peninsula, which flows past Toledo and reaches the sea at Lisbon; the Duero, which becomes the Douro in Portugal; the Guadiana; and the Guadalquivir, the only large navigable river, as far as Seville. The Ebro, the river with the most water, rises in Cantabria and flows into the Mediterranean through a large delta south of Tarragona. Many rivers have irregular flows, and Spain is one of the countries with the most dams in the world.
Coasts and islands
Spain has thousands of kilometres of coastline. The north, on the Cantabrian Sea, has high green coasts with deep inlets, the rías, in Galicia. To the south-west, on the Gulf of Cádiz, the coast is low, with dunes and marshes such as those of the Doñana park. The Mediterranean has the most famous coasts, from the high, indented Costa Brava to the Costa Dorada, the Costa Blanca and the Costa del Sol. The Strait of Gibraltar, just 14 kilometres wide, separates Spain from Africa.
The Balearics (Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera) continue the Baetic ranges into the Mediterranean; the Canaries are volcanic Atlantic islands about 100 kilometres off the coast of the Sahara (see Spain's islands).
Climate and population
The climate varies greatly from place to place: Atlantic in the north, continental inland, Mediterranean on the eastern and southern coasts, subtropical in the Canaries (see climate). Population is also very unevenly spread: average density is just under 100 people per km², but the coasts and the Madrid area are densely populated, while vast inland areas, the so-called España vaciada, "emptied Spain", have some of the lowest densities in Europe (see population and maps of Spain).