Iberian Peninsula: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe. It is bordered on the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea, and on the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean. The Pyrenees form the northeast edge of the peninsula, connecting it to the rest of Europe. At Gibraltar in the south, it approaches Africa.

Countries

• Andorra a microstate bordering France and Spain in the Pyrenees
• Spain occupying the majority of Iberia
• Portugal the western most part

The following official languages are spoken in the Iberian peninsula:

• Andorra:
  • Catalan
• Gibraltar:
  • English
• Portugal:
  • Portuguese
  • Mirandese (official recognition)
• Spain:
  • Basque
  • Spanish (also called Castilian)
  • Catalan (called Valencian in Valencian Country)
  • Galician
  • Asturian (official recognition)
  • Occitan (locally called Aranese, official recognition)

The following languages were spoken in the Iberian peninsula before the Roman occupation:

• Lusitan
• Aquitan (Basque)
• Iberian
• Celtiberian
• Tartessian

In medieval times the peninsula housed many small states. However these amalgamated over time, until the end of the Napoleonic Wars (including the Peninsular War) in 1815. At that point the modern position was reached and the peninsula now consists of the countries of Spain and Portugal (excluding their islands and Ceuta and Melilla), Andorra, and the territory of Gibraltar. Jewish historian Josephus had related the biblical character Tubal son of Japheth to a unknown group called the 'Iberes'. "Thobel founded the Thobelites, who are now called Iberes", Antiquities of the Jews I:6.