The region of Castilla la Mancha includes much of the southern part of the Iberian peninsula. It is on the southern sub-plateau and is bound by the Madrid (Region) and Castilla y Leon in the North, Aragon and the Region of Valencia in the East, Murcia and Andalusia in the South and Extremadura in the West.
The terrain can be divided into two distinct parts. On the one side there is the plateau, an extensive flat land with very few mountains. The flatness of the plateau is often broken by mountains such as the Toledo Mountains, that include summits such as Villuercas (1,601 Mts.) and Rocigalgo (1,447 Mts.). The most mountainous part of the area, which encircles the plateau around the region's borders, includes foothills along the massifs of the Central mountain range, the Iberian mountain range and the Sierra Morena. Within Castilla la Mancha are the southern foothills of the Gredos sierra, the mountainous areas of Cuenca that stretch out towards the Iberian range, the mountainous terrain of Ciudad Real, that stretches out towards Sierra Morena, and the southern sierras of Albacete. Some of Spain's most important rivers run through Castile-La Mancha. The Tagus and the Guadiana are two of the most important that head westwards along the region. The Jucar River, which is the third most important river of the area, heads eastwards. A particularly notable feature in the geography of the mountainous area of Cuenca are the rock formations of the The Enchanted City (La Ciudad Encantada), The Majadas Passageways (Los Callejones de las Majadas) and Las Torcas, all created by erosion. |
