Portugal Geography

Portugal occupies the western edge of the Iberian Peninsula, with a roughly 950-kilometer Atlantic coastline running from its northern border with Spain's Galicia region down to the Algarve in the south.

The Tagus River, Portugal's longest, crosses the country and divides it geographically -- rolling hills and mountains predominate to the north, while flatter plains define much of the south.

The Douro River carves a dramatic terraced valley through northern Portugal's wine country before reaching the Atlantic at Porto.

Two autonomous archipelagos extend Portugal far into the Atlantic: the volcanic Azores, roughly 1,500 kilometers west of the mainland, and the subtropical Madeira Islands, off the coast of northwest Africa.