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Spain
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Things
to Know
Capital: Madrid
Spain is located in Southwestern Europe.
Spain and Portugal share the Iberian Peninsula, a vaguely
square-shaped realm at the far southwestern edge of Europe.
Map
of Spain
Currency: Euro
Language: Spanish
Religion: 90% Catholic
Animals
The Iberian
lynx, the most endangered and the only large
carnivore in Europe.
Climate
Hot summers and cold winters in the interior. Partly cloudy and cool
along coast.
Land
There are five big mountain ranges crossing Spain.
In southernmost part of Spain is the Mountain Range
Sierra Morena.
Mediterranean Spain, fertile and luminous.
Southern Spain -Andalucia, hot and dry.
Plants
Esparto grass is a coarse grass, native to Southern Spain, which is used for making paper.
The dry Spain has a combination of wood-land and scrub that can
thrive with very little moisture. A typical forest of holm oaks and
cork trees survives in Andalusia. In the Southwest parts of Andalusia
several exotic species of plants are frequently found, such as the dwarf
fan palm, the Indian
prickly-pear and aloa plants.
In the Mediterranean area holm oak-cork forests are interspersed with
a coniferous mass dominated by the Aleppo
pine. In the higher altitudes, is conifers more suitable to
mountainous regions, such as the larch and the Scotch pine. A type of
desert with very scant vegetation extends to the shores of the
Mediterranean in the southeastern parts of Andalusia.
Artist
Spain has an extraordinary artistic heritage. Toledo-based artists El
Greco and Diego
Velázquez. Francisco
Goya in the 18th century was Spain's most prolific painter and
he produced some wonderfully unflattering portraits of royalty.
The art world in the early 20th century was influenced by a
remarkable group of Spanish artists: Pablo
Picasso, Juan
Gris, Joan
Miró, and Salvador Dalí.
Games
A. Pintura: Art Detective
Play this game and learn about Picasso and many other artists.
Read
Flamenco is the musical tradition in the country's south, in particular in Andalusia.
Condensed and short history
of Spain.
Fun
Facts
The guitar was invented in Andalucía in the 1790's when a
sixth string was added to the Arab lute. It gained its modern shape
in the 1870s.
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