Iberian Peninsula

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"Iberia" redirects here. For other uses, see Iberia (disambiguation).
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A map of the Iberian Peninsula and its location in Europe.
Satellite image of the Iberian Peninsula.
Iberian map europe.svg
Location Southern & Western Europe
Area 581,471.1 km2 (224,507.2 sq mi)
Highest elevation 3,478 m (11,411 ft)
Highest point Mulhacén
Sovereign states and dependent territories
Largest city Andorra la Vella
Largest city Gibraltar
Largest city Lisbon
Largest city Madrid
Largest city Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via
Demonym Iberian
Population 56 million

The Iberian Peninsula (Asturian, Galician, Leonese, Mirandese, Portuguese, and Spanish: Península Ibérica, Catalan: Península Ibèrica, Aragonese and Occitan: Peninsula Iberica, French: Péninsule Ibérique, Basque: Iberiar Penintsula), commonly called Iberia (/ˈbɪəriə/), is the third largest European peninsula (after the Scandinavian and Balkan peninsulas); it is located in the extreme southwest of the continent. The area is approximately 582,000 km2 (225,000 sq mi). There are three countries in it (in addition to sub-territories of France and Britain): Spain, Portugal, Andorra, as well as a part of France and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar.


The Iberian Peninsula is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan. It is bordered on the south-east and east by the Mediterranean Sea, and on the north, west, and southwest by the Atlantic Ocean. The Pyrenees form the north-east edge of the peninsula, separating it from the rest of Europe. Its southern tip is very close to the northwest coast of Africa, separated from it by the Strait of Gibraltar.


Iberian Peninsula and southern France, satellite photo on a rare cloudless day in March 2014

Greek name[edit]

The English word Iberia was adapted from the use of the Ancient Greek word Ιβηρία (Ibēría) by Greek geographers under the rule of the Roman Empire to refer to what is known today in English as the Iberian Peninsula.[1] At that time, the name did not describe a single political entity or a distinct population of people.[2] Strabo's Iberia was delineated from Keltikē (Gaul) by the Pyrenees[3] and included the entire land mass south-west (he says "west") of there.[4]



Roman names[edit]

Main article: Hispania

Generally, Greek authors used Iberia and Latin authors used Hispania, but when the Romans encountered the writings of the Greek geographers, they began to use the word Iberia and spoke occasionally of the Iberi.[3][12] The first mention in Roman literature was by the annalist poet Quintus Ennius in 200 BC.[13][14][15] The Romans had broad experience with the peoples on the peninsula acquired during the long conflict with Carthage. Virgil refers to the Ipacatos Hiberos ("restless Iberi") in his Georgics.[16] The Roman geographers and other prose writers from the time of the late Roman Republic called the entire peninsula Hispania.

As they became politically interested in the former Carthaginian territories, the Romans began to use the names Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior for 'near' and 'far' Spain. Even at that time Hispania included Lusitania (Portugal south of the Douro river and Extremadura in western Spain), Gallaecia (Northern Portugal and Galicia in Spain), Celtiberia (central Spain), Baetica (Andalusia), Cantabria (North-West Spain) and the territory of the Vascones, likely the ancestors of the present-day Basques. Strabo says[8] that the Romans use Hispania and Iberia synonymously, distinguishing between the near and the far. He was living in a time when the peninsula was divided into Roman provinces, of which Baetia was supervised by the Senate, whereas the others were governed directly on behalf of the Emperor. Whatever language may generally have been spoken on the peninsula soon gave way to Latin, except for that of the Vascones, which was preserved as a language isolate by the barrier of the Pyrenees.


Northeast Iberian script from Huesca.


The early range of these natives, stated by the geographers and historians to be from southern Spain to southern France along the Mediterranean coast, is marked by instances of a readable script expressing a yet unknown language, dubbed "Iberian." Whether this was the native name or was given to them by the Greeks for their residence on the Ebro remains unknown. Credence in Polybius imposes certain limitations on etymologizing: if the language remains unknown, the meanings of the words, including Iber, must also remain unknown. In modern Basque, the word ibar[20] means 'valley' or 'watered meadow', while ibai[20] means 'river', but there is no proof relating the etymology of the Ebro River with these Basque names.


Main article: Prehistoric Iberia
Schematic rock art from the Iberian Peninsula.
Iberian Late Bronze Age since c. 1300 BC



Around 200,000 BC, during the Lower Paleolithic period, Neanderthals first entered the Iberian Peninsula. Around 70,000 BC, during the Middle Paleolithic period, the last ice age began and the Neanderthal Mousterian culture was established. Around 35,000 BC, during the Upper Paleolithic, the Neanderthal Châtelperronian cultural period began. Emanating from Southern France, this culture extended into the north of the peninsula. It continued to exist until around 28,000 BC, when Neanderthal man faced extinction.

At about the 40th millennium BC, modern humans entered the Iberian Peninsula from Southern France.[21] Here, this genetically homogeneous population (characterized by the M173 mutation in the Y-chromosome), developed the M343 mutation, giving rise to the R1b Haplogroup, still the most common in modern Portuguese and Spanish males.[22] On the Iberian Peninsula, modern Humans developed a series of different cultures, such as the Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian cultures, some of them characterized by complex forms of Paleolithic art.




In the Chalcolithic or Copper Age (c. 3000 BC), a series of complex cultures developed that would give rise to the peninsula's first civilizations and to extensive exchange networks reaching to the Baltic, Middle East and North Africa. Around 2800 – 2700 BC, the Bell Beaker culture, which produced the Maritime Bell Beaker, probably originated in the vibrant copper—using communities of the Tagus estuary in Portugal and spread from there to many parts of western Europe.[23]

Bronze Age[edit]

Bronze Age cultures developed beginning c.1800 BC, when the civilization of Los Millares was followed by that of El Argar. From this centre, bronze technology spread to other areas, such as those of the Bronze of Levante, South-Western Iberian Bronze and Cogotas I.

In the Late Bronze Age, the urban civilisation of Tartessos developed in the area of modern western Andalusia, characterized by Phoenician influence and using the Tartessian script for its Tartessian language, not related to the Iberian language.

Early in the first millennium BC, several waves of Pre-Celts and Celts migrated from Central Europe, thus partially changing the peninsula's ethnic landscape into Indo-European space in its northern and western regions. In North-Western Iberia (Northern Portugal, Asturias and Galicia), a Celtic culture developed, the Castro culture, with a large number of hill forts and some fortified cities.


By the Iron Age, starting in the 7th century BC, the Iberian Peninsula consisted of complex agrarian and urban civilizations, either Pre-Celtic or Celtic (such as the Lusitanians, Celtiberians, Gallaeci, Astur, Celtici and others), the cultures of the Iberians in the eastern and southern zones and the cultures of the Aquitanian in the western portion of the Pyrenees.



Roman rule[edit]

Main article: Hispania
Roman conquest of Hispania

In 218 B.C., during the Second Punic war against the Carthaginians, the first Roman troops invaded the Iberian Peninsula and annexed it under Augustus after two centuries of war with the Celtic and Iberian tribes and the Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian colonies, resulting in the creation of the province of Hispania. It was divided into Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior during the late Roman Republic, and during the Roman Empire, it was divided into Hispania Taraconensis in the north-east, Hispania Baetica in the south and Lusitania in the south-west.

Hispania supplied the Roman Empire with food, olive oil, wine, and metal. The emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius I, the philosopher Seneca, and the poets Martial and Lucan were born from families living on the peninsula.

Germanic kingdoms[edit]

Main articles: Visigothic Kingdom and Spania
Iberian Peninsula in 560


Islamic rule[edit]

In AD 711, a Muslim army invaded the Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania. Under Tariq ibn-Ziyad, the Islamic army landed at Gibraltar and brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic control in an eight-year campaign. Al-ʾAndalūs (Arabic الإندلس : possibly "Land of the Vandals"),[24][25] is the Arabic name given the Iberian Peninsula by its Muslim Berber and Arab conquerors.

From the 8th–15th centuries, the Iberian Peninsula was incorporated into the Islamic world and became a center of culture and learning, especially during the Caliphate of Cordoba, which reached its height under the rule of Abd ar-Rahman III. The Muslims, which were initially Arabs and Berbers, included local Iberian converts, the so-called Muladi, who formed the majority of the Iberian population by the year 1100. The Muslims were referred to by the generic name, Moors. Thus, before the so-called Reconquista gained momentum, the Iberian Peninsula had been transformed from a mainly Romance-speaking Christian land into a mainly Arabic-speaking Muslim land. However, pockets of Arabic and Romance-speaking Christians called Mozarabs survived throughout al-Andalus, in addition to a large minority of Arabic-speaking Jews.


Main article: Reconquista
The Reconquista, 790–1300

Many of the ousted Gothic nobles took refuge in the unconquered north Asturian highlands. From there, they aimed to reconquer their lands from the Moors; this war of reconquest is known as the Reconquista. Christian and Muslim kingdoms fought and allied among themselves. The Muslim taifa kings competed in patronage of the arts, the Way of Saint James attracted pilgrims from all Western Europe, and the Jewish population set the basis of Sephardic culture.[citation needed]

During the Middle Ages, the peninsula housed many small states including Castile, Aragon, Navarre, León and Portugal. The peninsula was part of the Islamic Almohad empire until they were finally uprooted. The last major Muslim stronghold was Granada, which was conquered by a combined Castilian and Aragonese force in 1492. Muslims and Jews throughout the period were variously tolerated or shown intolerance in different Christian kingdoms. However, after the conquest of Granada, all Muslims and Jews were ordered to convert to Christianity or face expulsion. Many Jews and Muslims fled to North Africa and the Ottoman Empire, while others publicly converted to Christianity and became known respectively as Marranos and Moriscos. However, many of these continued to practice their religion in secret. The Moriscos revolted several times and were ultimately forcibly expelled from Spain in the early 17th century.

Post reconquest[edit]



Geography and geology[edit]

Overall characteristics[edit]

Major rivers of the Iberian Peninsula: Miño/Minho, Duero/Douro, Tajo/Tejo, Guadiana, Guadalquivir, Segura, Júcar/Xúquer, Ebro.










Major Geologic Units of the Iberian Peninsula



The Iberian Peninsula contains rocks of every geological period from the Ediacaran to the Recent, and almost every kind of rock is represented. World class mineral deposits can also be found there. The core of the Iberian Peninsula consists of a Hercynian cratonic block known as the Iberian Massif. On the northeast, this is bounded by The Pyrenean fold belt, and on the southeast it is bounded by the Betic Foldchain. These twofold chains are part of the Alpine belt. To the west, the peninsula is delimited by the continental boundary formed by the magma poor opening of the Atlantic Ocean. The Hercynian Foldbelt is mostly buried by Mesozoic and Tertiary cover rocks to the east, but nevertheless outcrops through the Iberian Chain and the Catalan Coastal Ranges.

Modern countries and territories[edit]

Political divisions of the Iberian Peninsula sorted by area:

Mainland population[34] km2 sq mi  % Share
Spain Spain 43,500,000 493,519 190,549 85% occupies most of the peninsula
Portugal Portugal 10,144,940 89,261 34,464 15% occupies most of the west of the peninsula
France France 12,035 540 210 <1% French Cerdagne is in the south side of the Pyrenees range between Spain and France, so it is technically located in the Iberian Peninsula[35]
Andorra Andorra 84,082 468 181 <1% a northern edge of the peninsula in the south side of the Pyrenees range between Spain and France
Gibraltar Gibraltar 29,431 7 3 <1% a British overseas territory near the southernmost tip of the peninsula


Major Urban Areas[edit]

Urban Area Country Region Population Globalization Index
Madrid Spain Spain Community of Madrid 6,321,398[36] Alpha
Barcelona Spain Spain Catalonia 4,604,000[37] Alpha-
Lisbon Portugal Portugal Lisbon Region 3,035,000[38] Alpha-
Porto Portugal Portugal Norte Region 1,676,848[39] Gamma-
Valencia Spain Spain Community of Valencia 1,564,145[40] Gamma

Major cities[edit]

List of cities in the Iberian Peninsula by population
1 Madrid Madrid, Spain 3,233,527   11 Córdoba Andalusia, Spain 328,841
3 Valencia Valencia, Spain 797,028   13 Vigo Galicia, Spain 297,733
5 Zaragoza Aragon, Spain 679,624   15 Gijón Asturias, Spain 277,554
6 Málaga Andalusia, Spain 567,433   16 L'Hospitalet Catalonia, Spain 257,057
7 Lisbon Lisbon, Portugal 547,631   17 A Coruña Galicia, Spain 246,146
9 Bilbao Basque Country, Spain 351,629   19 Porto Norte, Portugal 237,559
10 Alicante Valencia, Spain 334,678   20 Granada Andalusia, Spain 239,017

Various other notable cities are also present on the peninsula, like Elche (230,354), Oviedo (225,973), Badalona (220,977) and Terrassa (215 678) in Spain; and Braga (181,874), Amadora (175,558), Coimbra (102,455) and Setúbal (90,640) in Portugal.

Major metropolitan areas[edit]






East Atlantic flyway[edit]

The Iberian Peninsula in an important stopover on the East Atlantic flyway for birds migrating from northern Europe to Africa. For example, Curlew Sandpipers rest in the region of Cadiz Bay.[41]

In addition to the birds migrating through, some seven million wading birds from the north spend the winter in the estuaries and wetlands of the Iberian Peninsula, mainly at locations on the Atlantic coast. In Galicia are Ria de Arousa (a home of Grey Plover), Ria de Ortigueira, Ria de Corme and Ria de Laxe. In Portugal, the Aveiro Lagoon hosts Recurvirostra avosetta, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover and Little Stint. Ribatejo Province on the Tagus River supports Recurvirostra arosetta, Grey Plover, Dunlin, Bar-tailed Godwit and Common Redshank. In the Sado Estuary are Dunlin, Eurasian Curlew, Grey Plover and Common Redshank. The Algarve hosts Red Knot, Greenshank and Turnstone. The Marismas de Guadalquivir region of Andalusia and the Salinas de Cádiz are especially rich in wintering wading birds: Kentish Plover, Ringed Plover, Sanderling, and Black-tailed Godwit in addition to the others. And finally, the Ebro delta is home to all the species mentioned above.[42]


Main article: Languages of Iberia


In modern times, Spanish (cf. 30 to 40 million speakers), Portuguese (cf. around 10 million speakers), Catalan (cf. around 9 million speakers), Galician (cf. around 3 million speakers) and Basque (cf. around half a million speakers) are the most widely spoken languages in the Iberian Peninsula. Spanish and Portuguese have expanded beyond Iberia to the rest of world, becoming global languages.

See also[edit]


  2. ^ Strabo. "Book III Chapter 1 Section 6". Geographica. "And also the other Iberians use an alphabet, though not letters of one and the same character, for their speech is not one and the same." 
  6. ^ Strabo; Horace Leonard Jones, Translator (MCMLXXXVIII). The Geography (in ancient Greek, English) II. Cambridge: Bill Thayer. p. 118, Note 1 on 3.4.19. 
  8. ^ a b III.4.19.
  9. ^ III.37.
  10. ^ III.17.
  11. ^ III.4.11.
  17. ^ III.3.21.
  18. ^ White, Horace; Jona Lendering. "Appian's History of Rome: The Spanish Wars (§§6–10)". livius.org. pp. Chapter 7. Retrieved 2008-12-01. 
  22. ^ Persistent Entity. "Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA)". NAP Professional. North American Pharmacal. Archived from the original on March 12, 2014. 
  26. ^ III.1.3.
  30. ^ "Iberian Peninsula – Atlantic Coast" (pdf). An Atlas of Oceanic Internal Solitary Waves. Global Ocean Associates. February 2004. Retrieved 2008-12-09. 
  33. ^ Introduction to the Birds of Spain
  35. ^ For example, the Segre river, which goes west and then south to meet the Ebro, has its source in the French side.
  37. ^ http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf
  38. ^ http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf Demographia: World Urban Areas
  41. ^ Hortas, Francisco; Jordi Figuerols (2006). "Migration pattern of Curlew Sandpipers Calidris ferruginea on the south-western coastline of the Iberian Peninsula" (pdf). International Wader Studies 19: 144–147. Retrieved 2008-12-07. 
  42. ^ Dominguez, Jesus (1990). "Distribution of estuarine waders wintering in the Iberian Peninsula in 1978–1982". Wader Study Group Bulletin 59: 25–28. 

External links[edit]

Coordinates: 40°18′N 3°43′W﻿ / ﻿40.300°N 3.717°W﻿ / 40.300; -3.717