About Spain
The map shows the
Iberian Peninsula with Spain, officially the Kingdom of Spain (Span.: Reino de España), a state in southwestern Europe with two exclaves in North Africa. Spain's mainland is bounded by the
Pyrenees mountain range in the northeast, the
Bay of Biscay, a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean in the north, the
Gulf of Cadiz and the
Strait of Gibraltar in the south, and the
Mediterranean Sea in the south and east. In the west, Spain surrounds
Portugal on two sides.
With an
area of 505,992 km², Spain is the third-largest country in Europe if Russia is not counted. Compared, the country is somewhat larger than twice the size of the
United Kingdom, or slightly more than twice the size of the
U.S. state of Oregon.
The Kingdom of Spain has a
population of 47.1 million people (in 2020), the capital and largest city is
Madrid with 3.2 million inhabitants. Spoken
languages are
Spanish (official), co-official languages are Catalan, Galician, Basque, and Occitan.
More about Spain
Administrative Map of Spain (without the Canary Islands)
© nationsonline.org
Spain is bordered by
Portugal in the west, by
France and
Andorra in the northeast. It shares borders with
Morocco at the Spanish coastal exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, the two permanently inhabited Spanish autonomous cities in
Northern Africa.
Spain also shares maritime borders with
Algeria and
Italy.
Islands
The territory of Spain includes two archipelagos, the
Balearic Islands (Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, and Formentera) in the Mediterranean Sea, and the
Canary Islands (Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, and El Hierro) in the Atlantic Ocean, west off the coast of Morocco.
Mountains
Mount Teide on Tenerife is Spain's highest mountain with an altitude of 3,718 m.
Mt. Mulhacén on the mainland is the highest mountain on the Iberian Peninsula at 3,478 m.
Rivers
The
Tagus (Tajo, Tejo), which flows through Spain and Portugal, is the longest river on the Iberian Peninsula. The
Ebro is the longest river that flows entirely within Spain.
Gibraltar
And there is Gibraltar, the tiny British Overseas Territory, one small jut dangling from the peninsula, is still a disputed area. Spain's irredentist claims on Gibraltar escalated when Spain threatened to take control of Gibraltar "the very next day" after a British withdrawal from the EU.
Landscape
Spain's landscape offers a variety of sceneries, from soaring peaks in its mountain ranges to a Mediterranean flair in the south, from dense forests to wetlands and desert areas, deep canyons with spectacular waterfalls alternate with red-brown or white-colored villages and ancient castles.
Climate
Spain's weather patterns range from temperate Atlantic in the north to a Mediterranean climate in the south. The northern regions experience cool summers, mild winters, and year-round rainfall, the interior has hot, dry summers and cold winters, with snow on the higher elevations. The Mediterranean regions enjoy a subtropical climate.
The map shows the location of the following Spanish cities and towns:
A Coruña, Albacete, Alicante, Almeria, Avila, Badajoz, Barcelona, Benidorm, Bilbao, Burgos, Cáceres, Cádiz, Cartagena, Castellón de la Plana, Ciudad Real, Córdoba, Cuenca, Elche, Figueres, Gijón, Granada, Huelva, Leon, Lleida, Lloret de Mar, Logroño, Lugo, Madrid, Málaga, Marbella, Merida, Murcia, Oran, Ourense, Oviedo, Pamplona, Pontevedra, Salamanca, Santander, Santiago de Compostela, Segovia, Sevilla, Tarragona, Teruel, Toledo, Valencia, Valladolid, Zamora, and Zaragoza.
Gibraltar (U.K.)
Balearic Islands
Palma, Ibiza (town)
North Africa (Morocco)
Ceuta, and Melilla