Geography
Despite the existence of a large city of 5 million people, the Community of Madrid still retains some remarkably unspoiled and diverse habitats and landscapes. Madrid is home to mountain peaks rising above 2,000m, holm oak dehesas and low lying plains. The slopes of Guadarrama mountain range are cloaked in dense forests of Scots Pine and Pyrenean oak. The Lozoya Valley supports a large black (monk) vulture colony, and one of the last bastions of the Spanish Imperial Eagle in the world is found in the Park Regional del Suroeste in dehesa hills between the Gredos and Guadarrama ranges. The recent possible detection of the existence of Iberian lynx in the area between the Cofio and Alberche rivers is testament to the biodiversity of the area. When looking at a map of the Province of Madrid, it can be seen that it is almost an equilateral triangle, in whose center would be the city. It seems that Madrid's geographic limits turn out to be those of nature: on the western side the "Sistema Central" (the Guadarrama mountain range), the south represents the desire to include (the Royal Site of) Aranjuez, and finally the eastern edge of the triangle comes from the rupture of the fluvial river basins.
Province of Madrid occupies a surface area of approximately 8,028 km² (1.6% of all Spanish territory). More specifically, the exact position of Madrid is 3° 40´ of longitude west of Greenwich, England, and 40° 23´ north of the equator.
Practically all of the Province is located between 600 and 1,000 m above sea level, with the highest point being Peñalara at 2,430 m and the lowest Alberche river in Villa del Prado at 430 m. Other considerable heights, as well as being famous, are the Ball of the World mountain (la Bola del Mundo) in Navacerrada, at a height of 2,258 m and the seven peaks in Cercedilla, at 2,138 m.
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