Morphology

Spain: a country of great and varied landscape and geographical wealth.

Spain is geographically divided into very distinct territories. Its average altitude is high at 660 metres, in other words, two times the European average. Its highest peaks are Teide (3,718 metres), on the island of Tenerife; Mulhacén (3,478 m), in Granada; and 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 Meseta) cut into two sub-plateaux (north and south) and divided by the Central and Toledo mountains. This plateau is surrounded by other mountainous structures on its periphery: the Galician massif, the Cantabrian mountain range, the Iberian Mountains and the Sierra Morena. Three exterior ranges define the mountainous structure of the Peninsula; they are the Pyrenean, Andalusian and Catalan mountains. The Canary Islands is the region with the longest coastlines (1,546 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 Majorca, the low lands of the island of Minorca -where the land level does not exceed 300 metres, except in El Toro (357 m)- and the gentle relief of Ibiza, where the highest altitudes are Sa Talaiassa (475 m) and the Puig Gros (415 m).