9781422278062

Chapter One SPAIN’S GEOGRAPHY & LANDSCAPE

T he land of Spain lies on an enormous peninsula called Iberia. On a map, the Iberian Peninsula looks like a slightly lopsided square with the top bent toward the east and spread wide where it joins the rest of Europe. Florida, on the southeastern tip of the United States, is a large peninsula—but the Iberian Peninsula is nearly four times the size of Florida. Because it’s a peninsula, most of Spain’s boundaries are water: the Mediterranean Sea on the south and east, all the way from the Straits of Gibraltar to the French border; and the Atlantic Ocean on the northwest and southwest. Spain also shares land boundaries with France and Andorra along the Pyrenees mountain range in the northeast, and with Portugal in the west. The southern tip of Spain’s peninsula is Gibraltar, which it ceded to Great Britain in 1713. Out in the Atlantic Ocean, the Canary Islands also belong to Spain, as do the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. Most of the Iberian Peninsula is a high plateau called the Meseta Central. The plateau is rimmed with mountain ranges. A few lines of mountains dissect the plateau, as do some river valleys. Along the coast are narrow plains. The Mountains of Spain The Pyrenees form a solid wall between Spain and France. In past centuries, this natural barrier kept the two nations isolated from one another, but today international railroads and highways cross the lower land at the very eastern and western ends of the mountain range. In the middle of the Pyrenees’ long backbone, however, passage is difficult from one country to another. In several places, the craggy peaks tower higher than 9,843 feet (3,000 meters). The highest peak in the Pyrenees, Pico de Aneto, is more than 11,155 feet (3,400 11