Cantabrian Mountains - Geography

Mountain range in N Spain, extending 500 km/310 mi W–E from Galicia along the Bay of Biscay to the Pyrenees, and forming a barrier between the sea and the C plateau (Meseta) of Spain; highest point, the Picos de Europa massif (2648 m/8688 ft); rich in minerals, and a source of hydroelectric power.

Cantabrian Mountains (Cordillera Cantábrica in Spanish)is a mountain chain which extends for more than approximately 180 miles (300 km) across northern Spain, from the western limit of the Pyrenees (Basque mountains) to the borders of Galicia, and on or near the coast of the Bay of Biscay. The Cantabrian Mountains offer a wide range of trails for hiking, as well as many challenging climbing routes.

Geography

The Cantabrian Mountains stretch east-west, nearly parallel to the sea, as far as the pass of Leitariegos, also extending south between León and Galicia. The range's western boundary is marked by the valley of the river Miño (Portuguese: Minho), by the lower Sil, which flows into the Miño, and by the Cabrera River, a small tributary of the Sil.

Some geographers regard the mountains of Galicia beyond the Miño as an integral part of the same system; others confine the name to the eastern half of the highlands between Galicia and the Pyrenees, and call their western half the Asturian Mountains.

As a whole, the Cantabrian Mountains are remarkable for their intricate ramifications, but almost everywhere, and especially in the east, it is possible to distinguish two principal ranges, from which the lesser ridges and mountain masses radiate.

The descent from the southern range to the high plateaux of Castile is more gradual, and several large rivers, notably the Ebro, rise here and flow to the south or west. an unnamed summit in the Picos de Europa, to which range the Peña Vieja also belongs, rises on the right bank of the Sella to a height of 8,045 ft; A conspicuous feature of the chain, as of the adjacent tableland, is the number of its parameras, isolated plateaus shut in by lofty mountains or even by precipitous walls of rock.

The Cantabrian Mountains make a sharp divide between "Green Spain" to the north, and the dry central plateau.

The Sierra de Ancares is an extension, to the south-west, of the Cantabrian Mountains, forming the boundary between Galicia and Léon.