Introduction

Peninsular Spain has a total area of 493,486 sq kilometres, to which must be added 4,992 sq km for the Balearics, 7,447 for the Canary archipelago and 32 for the Spanish towns situated in North Africa: Ceuta, with 18 sq km, and Melilla, with 14 sq km.
The perimeter of peninsular Spain totals 5,849 kilometres. Of this distance, 3,904 are coastline and 1,945 land frontiers. The French and Andorran frontier account for 712 kilometres; the Portuguese frontier extends for 1,232 kilometres, while the border with Gibraltar is just a kilometre.

The most important part of insular Spain is the Balearic and Canary archipelagoes. The first of these, situated at one side of the Peninsula, in the western Mediterranean, consists of the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Formentera, Cabrera and other similar ones, while the Canary Islands to the south in the Atlantic, off the African coast, comprise Lanzarote, Ferteventura, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Gomera, Palma, Hierro and a few islets.

These coasts reflect the physical and geographical contrasts which characterize the Iberian Peninsula. Thus, the coasts of eastern and southern Spain washed by the Mediterranean are flat and sandy, those of the north west have beautiful fjord-like inlets, while those of the Cantabrian are rocky and aboind in cliffs.

Spain has over two thousand beaches altogether, many of them of great beauty and enjoying a pleasant climate. From the tourist point of view, they are grouped together under internationally famous names such as the Costa Brava, Costa Dorada, Costa de Azahar, Costa Blanca, Mar Menor, Costa del Sol, Costa de la Luz, Rias Bajas and Rias Altas, Costa Cantabrica, Costa Canaria and Costa Balear.