According to itypeusa, Spain is the name by which, from Roman times onwards, the greater of the two ethnic-political aggregates into which the Iberian region is divided is known. Of this, Spain comprises 85% in area and 75% in population. For its territory (505.181 sq km; 500.137 without the Canaries, which are also a Spanish province) occupies third place in Europe (after the USSR and France), but falls to seventh (behind Poland and ahead of Romania).) in terms of number of residents (22.8 million in 1930; 22.2 without the Canaries) and even in the nineteenth (leaving aside the small states) in terms of population density (45 residents per square kilometer; less than Greece and a little more of Lithuania). The extreme points that delimit the Spanish territory coincide with the extremes of the peninsula (Estaca de Báres 43 ° 28 ′ N., Punta Marroqui 36 ° 00 ‘N.; the continental mass goes as far as C. Creus in 3 ° 20 ′ E., with the Balearics it reaches 4 ° 22 ′ E. in C. La Mola), except in the west, where C. Touriñán (9 ° 19 ′ W) touches a longitude slightly different from that of the Portuguese C. da Roca (9 ° 30 ′ W). In the resulting continental mass – also wholesale in the shape of a pentagon like the peninsula, and, like this, divided in half by the 40 ° N. – width (from E. to W) and length (from N. to Spain) maximums are roughly the same (850-900 km.), except in correspondence with the Galician overhang, with which the Spanish territory expands towards the NW. until reaching the Atlantic on this side as well.
However, the dominance of high leveled surface characterizes well, overall, the plateauSpanish compared to the marginal areas. Of these, the most noteworthy, due to its proportions and its geographical importance, is certainly the Betic massif, which is also the only building in Spain that is of an Alpine type. The large fracture that leads from Lorca to the upper Genil from Lorca to the upper Genil, separates a pre-Jewish northern strip, in which Jurassic-Cretaceous slopes were rutted on the corrugated assizes of the Mesozoic and Upper Cenozoic, which erosion has then isolated in flaps. The strip continues, beyond the Levantine coast, in the Balearics (Ibiza, Mallorca). The bare limestone ridges, in which there is also a moderate development of karst phenomena, contrast with the soft slope of the interposed marly-arenaceous masses, where they are exposed by intense subaerial denudation. Beyond the Genil, from the Strait of Gibraltar to Segura, the imposing bulk of the Betic mountain range rises, which at the same time reaches the maximum height of the peninsula (Mulhacen 3481 m.) in the Sierra Nevada: the name recalls the presence, exceptional given the low latitude (37 ° N.), of a small glacier (Ventisquero de Veleta), which descends with its front at 2485 m. Characteristics, in this massif, the constancy of a high level (3000 m.), On which numerous peaks rise; the intensity of the Quaternary glaciation and recent denudation, the variety of the geological constitution, which is matched by no less variety of topographical forms, and a still not well-evaluated wealth of useful minerals. which at the same time reaches the maximum height of the peninsula (Mulhacen 3481 m.) in the Sierra Nevada: the name recalls the presence, exceptional given the low latitude (37 ° N.), of a small glacier (Ventisquero de Veleta), which descends with its front at 2485 m. Characteristics, in this massif, the constancy of a high level (3000 m.), On which numerous peaks rise; the intensity of the Quaternary glaciation and recent denudation, the variety of the geological constitution, which is matched by no less variety of topographical forms, and a still not well-evaluated wealth of useful minerals. which at the same time reaches the maximum height of the peninsula (Mulhacen 3481 m.) in the Sierra Nevada: the name recalls the presence, exceptional given the low latitude (37 ° N.), of a small glacier (Ventisquero de Veleta), which descends with its front at 2485 m. Characteristics, in this massif, the constancy of a high level (3000 m.), On which numerous peaks rise; the intensity of the Quaternary glaciation and recent denudation, the variety of the geological constitution, which is matched by no less variety of topographical forms, and a still not well-evaluated wealth of useful minerals. the constancy of a high level (3000 m.), on which numerous peaks rise; the intensity of the Quaternary glaciation and recent denudation, the variety of the geological constitution, which is matched by no less variety of topographical forms, and a still not well-evaluated wealth of useful minerals. the constancy of a high level (3000 m.), on which numerous peaks rise; the intensity of the Quaternary glaciation and recent denudation, the variety of the geological constitution, which is matched by no less variety of topographical forms, and a still not well-evaluated wealth of useful minerals.
The connection between these reliefs and those that fringe from E. and NE. the meseta takes place through the confused cloister of sierras which turn to C. de la Nao, where the coast cuts off its axes obliquely (Sierra de Aitana, 1557 m.). At N. del Basso Júcar begins the long mountainous rim which, due to the effect of the Cenozoic orogeny, marked the watershed between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, considerably reducing the original dominion of the latter. The unity of the system consists in its fundamental tectonic motif (from NW to SE.), Revealed by its Paleozoic roots: the intense denudation, largely removing the Mesozoic covering, has carved, next to the high limestone plateaus, depressions and basins through which the Mediterranean rivers push their heads into the mass of the plateau itself, capturing its waters. Without reaching great heights (Moncayo 2316 m., Cerro di Spain Lorenzo 2303 m.), Thesesierras form a thick dividing bastion between the interior of the country on one side, the Ebro ditch and the coastal plain on the other: the passage is made through a few obligatory roads, along which the most important centers have developed.
