Iberian Peninsula - Spain And Portugal

at the southwestern tip of Europe almost touching Africa lies the Iberian Peninsula this region is walled off from the rest of Europe by the rugged Pyrenees Mountains and separated from Africa by the narrow strait of gibraltar the dominant physical feature of the peninsula is the high central plateau fringed by the narrow lowlands along the coast the Iberian Peninsula is shared by two nations Spain occupies the greater portion and Portugal the lesser Spain's population numbers 27 million people Portugal has 7 million each of these symbol stands for 1 million people 3/4 of the people live in rural areas or villages like this one nestled on a mountainside in southern Spain only 3 urban centres have populations of over a million Madrid Barcelona and Lisbon other large cities are Valencia and Seville in Spain and Porto in Portugal most of the large cities are located on or near the sea Lisbon the capital city of Portugal is that country's most important commercial centre Lisbon is situated near the Atlantic on the Tahoe River it is the country's chief port Madrid capital of Spain is located in the centre of the peninsula it is Spain's cultural center as well as an important center for transportation and commerce throughout the peninsula however it is the land itself that furnishes a livelihood for most of the people farmers with crude implements making a living from the land most of this farmland lies on the central plateau a plateau crossed by several mountain ranges here the rainfall is so scant that large sections are virtual wasteland totally unsuited to agriculture where conditions are more favorable the land may support enough vegetation for grazing sheep these flocks provide wool for spain's textile mills where there is enough rainfall and the soil is fertile the land is tilled for the raising of crops wheat and barley grow in many parts of the plateau the sickle is still used to cut the grain as it has been for centuries here in threshing - the techniques in use today are the same as those that have been used for hundreds of years the hooves of animals and the drags that they draw over the stalks loosen the grain from the husks agriculture throughout the peninsula is primitive and laborious in the peninsula semi-arid regions the cork tree grows the thick bark that enables the cork tree to withstand drought is stripped off and made into corks for fishermen's nets courts for bottles and cork for insulation and other uses on the slopes down from the central plateau are great groves of olive trees the olive tree is well adapted to growth in semi-arid climates a large part of the olive harvest is used for making olive oil the olives are carried to presses where they go through a process which extracts the oil here a conveyor is carrying the olives to a mill where huge rollers crush them into pulp next presses squeeze out the oil olive oil is the fat in the diet of the spanish and portuguese it is also exported and other important export is wine made from the grapes of spanish and portuguese vineyards wines from the iberian peninsula are exported to all parts of the world professional wine tasters keep a constant check on the quality of the vintages rainfall is heaviest in the lowlands of the northwest corner of the peninsula the section known as galicia here corn a crop requiring considerable moisture is grown on the rich but limited areas of tillable land the coastal lowlands of the south and east are narrow and interrupted however it is here that the subtropical climate combined with an irrigation system introduced by the Moors hundreds of years ago makes possible the cultivation of special crops many of the devices used for raising water from one level to another have been in use for centuries old as the irrigation methods may be they still make possible the use of land which would otherwise be lost to cultivation here the water brought in by these methods is irrigating a sugar beet field sugar beets are an important farm product of the region irrigation also makes possible the growing of oranges and other sub tropical fruits in the coastal regions in this region too thanks to irrigation and occasional subtropical garden flourishes in the sunny Mediterranean climate in coastal cities the fish markets are evidence of an industry long practiced in the peninsula the surrounding waters yield rich catches of sardines tuna and anchovies and fish long have been an important domestic food and a major export a well-established handcraft industry in both Spain and Portugal is the production of tile made possible by the large clay deposits of the peninsula still widely practiced in modern Spain and Portugal the art of tile making was inherited originally from the Moors the Moors left many an influence on Spanish culture especially in architecture this is typifies by the ornate alhambra one of Spain's historical monuments another industry of the peninsula is associated with its deposits of iron and coal iron ore is found in the north and most of the coal is found in coastal mountains nearby coal production however fails to meet even domestic needs in the south there are other minerals copper lead and the world's largest deposit of mercury an important Spanish export most of the iron ore is exported this ship in the port of Bilbao is taking on a cargo of ore bound for England there to be made into iron and steel Spain's iron and coal make possible a small iron and steel industry of its own but like most industries of the Iberian Peninsula steel production is of minor importance Spain is so dry that her water power resources are slight but at this modern hydroelectric plant near Barcelona water power has been harnessed for industrial use power from the generators of this hydroelectric plant flows over transmission lines to the industrial city of Barcelona here it drives the looms of Barcelona's textile mills though raw cotton must be imported the domestic market for cheap goods makes textile Spain's most important industry the peninsula however is mostly a semi-arid land of plateau and mountains a land devoted to agriculture in this land not too well favored by nature most of the people are still intent on agricultural pursuits as they have been for centuries the Iberian Peninsula still awaits the impact of the Industrial Revolution