España (Spain)

"They have, there is no doubt, a generosity, a species of nobility, that do not really belong to the twentieth century."
Orwell on the Spanish people (?!).

Spain is the homeland of Elena and is one of the places where we live in these times of splitted lives.

These lands were subject to many external influences since prehistoric times and have been one of the great melting pot of races and cultures, particularly a blend of Moorish and Jewish, until it emerged as a modern state in the 15th century with the Catholic Monarchs and the completion of the Reconquista in the Annus Mirabilis 1492 where they also started a new era with the discovery and then conquest of a new world.

Autonomous Communities

Galicia

Navarre

Madrid

La Rioja

Aragon

Catalonia

Valencia

Castile–
La Mancha

Extremadura

Portugal

Castile
and León

Asturias

Cantabria

Basque Country

Murcia

Andalusia

Ceuta

Melilla

France

Balearic
Islands

Canary
Islands

Mediterranean Sea

Bay of Biscay

Atlantic Ocean

Andorra

Atlantic Ocean

Gibraltar

Municipalities

Madrid and Barcelona are the two Spanish megalopolis, sometimes with a bit of antagonism.

The top 50 cities appear in the list below (click to unfold):

#	Municipality	Pop. (2009)
1	Madrid	3,255,944
2	Barcelona	1,621,537
3	Valencia	852,208
4	Seville	703,206
5	Zaragoza	674,317
6	Málaga	568,305
7	Murcia	436,870
8	Palma	401,270
9	Las Palmas	381,847
10	Bilbao	354,860
11	Alicante	334,757
12	Córdoba	328,428
13	Valladolid	317,864
14	Vigo	297,332
15	Gijón	277,554
16	L'Hospitalet de Llobregat	257,038
17	A Coruña	246,056
18	Vitoria-Gasteiz	235,661
19	Granada	234,325
20	Elche	230,112
21	Oviedo	224,005
22	Santa Cruz de Tenerife	222,417
23	Badalona	219,547
24	Cartagena	211,996
25	Terrassa	210,941
26	Jerez de la Frontera	207,532
27	Sabadell	206,493
28	Móstoles	206,478
29	Alcalá de Henares	204,574
30	Pamplona	198,491
31	Fuenlabrada	197,836
32	Almería	188,810
33	Leganés	186,066
34	Donostia-San Sebastián	186,066
35	Santander	182,700
36	Castellón de la Plana	180,005
37	Burgos	178,966
38	Albacete	169,716
39	Alcorcón	167,967
40	Getafe	167,164
41	Salamanca	155,619
42	Logroño	152,107
43	San Cristóbal de La Laguna	150,661
44	Huelva	148,806
45	Badajoz	148,334
46	Tarragona	140,323
47	Lleida	138,416
48	Marbella	134,623
49	León	134,305
50	Cádiz	126,766

This is a complete list of the Spanish municipalities:

Extreme points

(of mainland Spain)

• Northernmost Point — Punta de Estaca de Bares, Galicia.
• Southernmost Point — Punta de Tarifa, Andalusia.
• Westernmost Point — Cape Touriñán, Galicia.
• Easternmost Point — Cap de Creus, Catalonia.
• Highest Point — Mulhacen 3,478 m, Sierra Nevada.

The centre of mainland Spain is assigned to Cerro de los Ángeles in Getafe.

Satellite views

At night, as seen from the International Space Station on 26 July (2014):

Languages

Of the Iberian peninsula, we only speak Spanish (and only Elena as a native).

Spanish is a contender to English in the Americas. We were surprised that it was very common in Chicago.

Culture

• Flamenco.