Iberian Peninsula

A satellite photograph of the Iberian Peninsula.

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Iberian Peninsula, peninsula in southwestern Europe, occupied by Spain and Portugal. Its name derives from its ancient inhabitants whom the Greeks called Iberians, probably for the Ebro (Iberus), the peninsula’s second longest river (after the Tagus). The Pyrenees mountain range forms an effective land barrier in the northeast, separating the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe, and in the south at Gibraltar the peninsula is separated from North Africa by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar. The Atlantic Ocean washes the northern, western, and southwestern coasts, and the Mediterranean Sea washes the southern and eastern shores. Cape Roca, in Portugal, is the most westerly point of continental Europe.