Spain covers a total of 504,782 square kilometers (including 5240 sq kms of water) and has 4964 kilometers of coastline. Its highest point is the Pico de Teide in Tenerife on the Canary Islands at 3718m, and on the mainland is the Mulhacén (3478m) in the Sierra Nevada in Andalucia.

Spain is the highest European country after Switzerland. It is extremely diverse, ranging from the near-deserts of Almeria to the green countryside of the north and the white sandy beaches of the Mediterranean.
Spain is divided into 19 autonomous communities (see map), 15 on the mainland, the Balearic and Canary Islands, and two little-known ones bordering Morocco (Ceuta and Melilla).

In addition to the national capital of Madrid, each autonomous community has a capital (e.g. Barcelona for Catalunya), and within each autonomous community there may be more than one province (e.g. Comunidad Valenciana consists of 3 provinces - Valencia, Alicante and Castellón) that also has a capital and which may be different to the community capital.