Widely known for Flamenco music and dance, bull-fights, fantastic beaches and lots of sunshine, Spain has to offer much more than that.
It is - and has been for thousands of years - one of the cultural centers of Europe. It has beautiful cities and towns, offering really old monuments as well as futuristic architecture. Its various regions are all different one to each other, geographically, climatically and even in personality. It is a fascinating country to know and to know more about it.
Spain is located at the Iberian Península, of which it occupies approximately 80% (the remaining 20% are occupied by Portugal), in the southwest of Europe.
In the north Spain borders on France and Andorra, with the Pyrenees as a natural frontier. Additionally the Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza) in the Mediterranean Sea, Canary Islands in Atlantic Ocean close to the Moroccian coast, and Ceuta and Melilla, located in northern Africa, are Spanish territory.
Spain is the 3 rd country of Europe in extension and the 5 th in population.
There are five big mountain ranges crossing the country, and about 50% of it are located at an elevated plain.
Landscapes are extremely varied, some almost desert-like, others green and fertile, and of course there are the long coasts, in the east along Mediterranean Sea from Pyrenees to Gibraltar, and in the west (the major part of the Iberian peninsula's western coast is occupied by Portugal) along the Atlantic Ocean and Cantabrian Sea.
