Madrid economic, cultural, industrial, educational, and technological centre on the European continent. Madrid lies on the southern Meseta Central, 60 km south of the Guadarrama mountain range and straddling the Jarama and Manzanares river sub-drainage basins, in the wider Tagus River catchment area. There is a considerable difference in altitude within city limits ranging from in the Manzanares riverbanks in the southeast of the municipality to above sea level in the highest part of the Fuencarral-El Pardo district. Over a quarter of the Madrid municipal area is covered by the largely forested protected area of El Pardo. Madrid has an inland
Madrid sector employs 18.1% of all employees. Madrid attracts about 8M tourists annually from other parts of Spain and from all over the world, exceeding even Barcelona. Spending by tourists in Madrid was estimated (2011) at €9,546.5M, or 7.7% of the city's GDP. The construction of transport infrastructure has been vital to maintain the economic position of Madrid. Travel to work and other local journeys use a high-capacity metropolitan road network and a well-used public transport system. In terms of longer-distance transport, Madrid is the central node of the system of "autovías" and of the high-speed rail network (AVE), which has