Pyrenees in the context of "Andorra–Spain border"

Rila (Bulgarian: Рила, pronounced [ˈriɫɐ]) is the highest mountain range of Bulgaria, the Balkan Peninsula, and of Southeast Europe. It is situated in southwestern Bulgaria and forms part of the Rila–Rhodope Massif. The highest summit is Musala at an elevation of 2,925 m which makes Rila the sixth highest mountain range in Europe after the Caucasus, the Alps, Sierra Nevada, the Pyrenees and Mount Etna, and the highest one between the Alps and the Caucasus. It spans a territory of 2,629 km with an average elevation of 1487 m. The mountain is believed to have been named after the river of the same name, which comes from the Old Bulgarian verb "рыти" meaning "to grub".

Rila has abundant water resources. Some of the Balkans' longest and deepest rivers originate from Rila, including the Maritsa, Iskar and Mesta rivers. Bulgaria's main water divide separating the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea drainage systems follows the main ridge of Rila. The mountain range is dotted with almost 200 glacial lakes such as the renowned Seven Rila Lakes, and is rich in hot springs in the fault areas at the foothills, including the hottest spring in South-eastern Europe in Sapareva Banya.

Southern Europe is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, southern France, southern Romania, Spain, Ticino (Switzerland), Turkey, and Vatican City.

Southern Europe is focused on the three peninsulas located in the extreme south of the European continent. These are the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian Peninsula, and the Balkan Peninsula. These three peninsulas are separated from the rest of Europe by towering mountain ranges, respectively by the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Balkan Mountains. The location of these peninsulas in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as their mountainous reliefs, provide them with very different types of climates (mainly subtropical Mediterranean) from the rest of the continent. So, the Sirocco hot wind that originates in the heart of the Sahara blows over Italy, going up to the interior of the Alpine arc (Po Valley). The Alps prevent the Sirocco from spreading to the rest of Europe. And, conversely, the Alps and the Pyrenees protect the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas from the rains and icy winds from the south of France such as the Mistral and the Tramontane. When the Mistral and the Tramontane are blowing, this provokes an "upwelling" phenomenon on the French coast. They push the surface waters out to sea and bring deeper, cooler waters up to the seaside. Consequently, the temperature of the waters of the French coasts are therefore very cool even in summer, and not representative of the rest of the Mediterranean.This same kind of phenomenon takes place between the two slopes of the Balkan mountain range. These mountains have, moreover, been a serious handicap to population displacement, focusing southern Europe mainly on the Mediterranean world. The climate and cultures are therefore very specific.

The Iberian Peninsula (IPA: /aɪˈbɪəriən/ eye-BEER-ee-ən), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of Peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprising most of the region, as well as the tiny adjuncts of Andorra, Gibraltar, and, pursuant to the traditional definition of the Pyrenees as the peninsula's northeastern boundary, a tiny part of France. With an area of approximately 583,254 square kilometres (225,196 sq mi), and a population of roughly 56 million, it is the second-largest European peninsula by area, after the Scandinavian Peninsula.

Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, bordered by France to the north and Spain to the south. Believed to have been created by Charlemagne, Andorra was ruled by the count of Urgell until 988, when it was transferred to the Diocese of Urgell. The present principality was formed by a charter in 1278. It is currently headed by two co-princes: the Bishop of Urgell in Catalonia, Spain, and the president of France. Its capital and largest city is Andorra la Vella.

Andorra is the sixth-smallest state in Europe, with an area of 468 square kilometres (181 sq mi) and a population of approximately 87,486. The Andorran people are a Romance ethnic group closely related to Catalans. Andorra is the world's 16th-smallest country by land and 11th-smallest by population. Its capital, Andorra la Vella, is the highest capital city in Europe, at an elevation of 1,023 metres (3,356 feet) above sea level. The official language is Catalan, but Spanish, Portuguese, and French are also commonly spoken.

The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests (Arabic: الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, romanized: al-Futūḥāt al-ʾIslāmiyya), also known as the Arab conquests, were a series of wars initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. He established the first Islamic state in Medina, Arabia that expanded rapidly under the Rashidun Caliphate and the Umayyad Caliphate, culminating in Muslim rule being established in Asia, Northern Africa, and Southern Europe over the following century. According to historian James Buchan: "In speed and extent, the first Arab conquests were matched only by those of Alexander the Great, and they were more lasting." At their height, the territory that was conquered by the Arab Muslims stretched from Iberia (at the Pyrenees) in the west to India (at Sind) in the east; Muslim control spanned Sicily, most of the Middle East and North Africa, and the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Among other drastic changes, the early Muslim conquests brought about the collapse of the Sasanian Empire and great territorial losses for the Byzantine Empire. Explanations for the Muslim victories have been difficult to discover, primarily because only fragmentary sources have survived from the period. American scholar Fred McGraw Donner suggests that Muhammad's establishment of an Islamic state in Arabia coupled with ideological (i.e., religious) coherence and mobilization constituted the main factor that propelled the early Muslim armies to successfully establish, in the timespan of roughly a century, one of the largest empires in history. Estimates of the total area of the combined territory held by the early Muslim polities at the conquests' peak have been as high as 13,000,000 square kilometres (5,000,000 sq mi). Most historians also agree that, as another primary factor determining the early Muslim conquests' success, the Sasanians and the Byzantines were militarily and economically exhausted from decades of warfare against each other.

The Arabian plate is a minor tectonic plate in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres.

It is one of the three continental plates (along with the African and Indian plates) that have been moving northward in geological history and colliding with the Eurasian plate. This collision is resulting in a mingling of plate pieces and mountain ranges extending in the west from the Pyrenees, crossing Southern Europe to Iranian plateau, forming the Alborz and the Zagros Mountains, to the Himalayas and ranges of Southeast Asia.

The Alans (Latin: Alani) were an ancient and medieval Iranic nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus; some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources. Having migrated westwards and becoming dominant among the Sarmatians on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, the Alans are mentioned by Roman sources in the 1st century CE. At that time they had settled the region north of the Black Sea and frequently raided the Parthian Empire and the South Caucasus provinces of the Roman Empire. From 215 to 250 CE the Goths broke their power on the Pontic Steppe, thereby assimilating a sizeable portion of the associated Alans.

Upon the Hunnic defeat of the Goths on the Pontic Steppe around 375 CE, many of the Alans migrated westwards along with various Germanic tribes. They crossed the Rhine in 406 along with the Vandals and Suebi, settling in Orléans and Valence. Around 409 they joined the Vandals and Suebi in crossing the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula, settling in Lusitania and Hispania Carthaginensis. The Iberian Alans, soundly defeated by the Visigoths in 418, subsequently surrendered their authority to the Hasdingi Vandals. In 428 CE, the Vandals and Alans crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into North Africa, where they founded a kingdom which lasted until its conquest by forces of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 534.

The Iberian Peninsula (IPA: /aɪˈbɪəriən/ eye-BEER-ee-ən), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of Peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprising most of the region, as well as the tiny adjuncts of Andorra, Gibraltar, and, pursuant to the traditional definition of the Pyrenees as the peninsula's northeastern boundary, a tiny part of France. With an area of approximately 583,254 square kilometres (225,196 sq mi), and a population of roughly 53 million, it is the second-largest European peninsula by area, after the Scandinavian Peninsula.

The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first mentioned in the written records as the inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the 5th century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vandal kingdoms, first within the Iberian Peninsula, and then in the western Mediterranean islands and North Africa.

Archaeologists associate the early Vandals with the Przeworsk culture, which has led to some authors equating them to the Lugii, who were another group of Germanic peoples associated with that same archaeological culture and region. Expanding into Dacia during the Marcomannic Wars and into Pannonia during the Crisis of the Third Century, the Vandals were confined to Pannonia by the Goths around 330 AD, where they received permission to settle from Constantine the Great. Around 400, raids by the Huns from the east forced many Germanic tribes to migrate west into the territory of the Roman Empire and, fearing that they might be targeted next, the Vandals were also pushed westwards, crossing the Rhine into Gaul along with other tribes in 406. In 409, the Vandals crossed the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula, where the Hasdingi and the Silingi settled in Gallaecia (northwest Iberia) and Baetica (south-central Iberia).

The co-princes of Andorra are jointly the heads of state (Catalan: cap d'estat) of the Principality of Andorra, a landlocked microstate lying in the Pyrenees between France and Spain.

Founded in 1278 by a treaty between the bishop of Urgell and the count of Foix, this unique diarchical arrangement has persisted through the Middle Ages to the present. Following the transfer of the count of Foix's claims to the Crown of France and, subsequently, to the head of state of the French Republic, the current arrangement has the bishop of Urgell (Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat) serving as the episcopal co-prince and the president of France (Emmanuel Macron) as the lay co-prince. Each co-prince appoints a personal representative. The episcopal co-prince is currently represented by Eduard Ibáñez and the lay co-prince by Patrice Faure.

Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situated on the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, to the south of the Pyrenees mountain range. Catalonia is administratively divided into four provinces or eight vegueries (regions), which are in turn divided into 43 comarques. The capital and largest city, Barcelona, is the second-most populous municipality in Spain and the fifth-most populous urban area in the European Union.

Modern-day Catalonia comprises most of the medieval and early modern Principality of Catalonia, with the remainder of the northern area now part of France's Pyrénées-Orientales. It is bordered by France (Occitanie) and Andorra to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east, and the Spanish autonomous communities of Aragon to the west and Valencia to the south. In addition to its approximately 580 km of coastline, Catalonia also has major high landforms such as the Pyrenees and the Pre-Pyrenees, the Transversal Range (Serralada Transversal) or the Central Depression. The official languages are Catalan, Spanish, and the Aranese dialect of Occitan.

Andorra la Vella is the capital and largest city of Andorra. It is located high in the east Pyrenees, between France and Spain. It is also the name of the Andorran parish that surrounds the capital.

As of 2023, the city had a population of 24,042, and the urban area, which includes Escaldes–Engordany plus satellite villages, has over 40,000 inhabitants.

Catalan (català) is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra and the official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spain: Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, where it is called Valencian (valencià). It has semi-official status in the Italian municipality of Alghero, and it is spoken in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France and in two further areas in eastern Spain: the eastern strip of Aragon and the Carche area in the Region of Murcia. The Catalan-speaking territories are often called the Països Catalans or "Catalan Countries".

The language evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages around the eastern Pyrenees. It became the language of the Principality of Catalonia and the kingdoms of Valencia and Mallorca, being present throughout the Mediterranean as the main language of the Crown of Aragon. It was replaced by Spanish as a language of government and literature in the 1700s, but nineteenth century Spain saw a Catalan literary revival, culminating in the early 1900s. With the end of Franco dictatorship (1975) and its repressive measures against the language, Catalan entered a relatively successful process of re-normalization between the 1980s and the 2000s. However, during the 2010s, it experienced signs of decline in social use, diglossia and the re-growth of discrimination cases.

Abies alba, the European silver fir or silver fir, is a fir native to the mountains of Europe, from the Pyrenees north to Normandy, east to the Alps and the Carpathians, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and south to Italy, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Albania and northern Greece.

Cerdanya (Catalan pronunciation: [səɾˈðaɲə]; Spanish: Baja Cerdaña, pronounced [ˈbaxa θeɾˈðaɲa]; French: Basse-Cerdagne, pronounced [bɑs sɛʁdaɲ, bas-]) is a comarca in northern Catalonia, in the Pyrenees, on the border of Catalonia with France and Andorra. Within Catalonia, Cerdanya is divided between Catalan provinces of Girona and Lleida. Cerdanya's neighbouring comarques are Alt Urgell, Berguedà, and Ripollès.

Cerdanya is in the "vegueria" of Alt Pirineu, according to "Vegueries of Catalonia law".

Pyrénées-Orientales (French: [piʁene ɔʁjɑ̃tal] ; Catalan: Pirineus Orientals [piɾiˈnɛwz uɾiənˈtals]; Occitan: Pirenèus Orientals [piɾeˈnɛwz uɾjenˈtals]; lit. 'Eastern Pyrenees'), also known as Northern Catalonia, is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France, adjacent to the northern Spanish frontier and the Mediterranean Sea. It borders the departments of Ariège to the northwest and Aude to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east and the Spanish province of Girona in Catalonia to the south and the country of Andorra to the west. It also surrounds the tiny Spanish exclave of Llívia, and thus has two distinct borders with Spain. In 2019, it had a population of 479,979. Some parts of the Pyrénées-Orientales (like the Cerdagne) are part of the Iberian Peninsula. It is named after the Pyrenees mountain range.