Spain

Flamenco, Gaudí and the language of 500 million people

Spain is a sunny country — 300 sunny days a year! Spanish is spoken by 500 million people — all of Latin America as well as Spain. In Barcelona, Gaudí's amazing Sagrada Família church has been under construction for 140 years. Spaniards dance flamenco, cook paella and take a 'siesta' rest in the afternoon. The Alhambra palace is a masterpiece of Islamic architecture. Real Madrid and Barcelona are the most famous football clubs.

Capital: Madrid. Language: Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Galician.

The Kingdom of Spain covers 505,990 km² with 48 million people in 17 autonomous communities (Catalonia and the Basque Country have their own languages), a constitutional monarchy. Nature: the Pyrenees, the Meseta plateau, the Sierra Nevada, the Canary Islands (Teide 3,715 m — Spain's highest point), the Balearics, 5,000 km of coast. History: the Altamira cave (36,000 years), Roman Hispania, the Visigoths, Al-Andalus (711–1492 — the Caliphate of Córdoba, the Alhambra, a centre of science), the Reconquista, Columbus reaching America in 1492, the Spanish Empire ('on which the sun never set'), the Civil War 1936–1939, Franco, democracy since 1978. Culture: Cervantes ('Don Quixote'), Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Dalí, Gaudí, flamenco (UNESCO), bullfighting. Economy: 15th in the world, tourism (85 million — 2nd), olive oil (50% of the world's), solar power, Zara. Football: 2010 world champions. With Uzbekistan: scientific links between Al-Andalus and Samarkand (Ulugh Beg's tables reached Europe), tourism.

Fun facts

• Spain produces half of the world's olive oil.
• The Sagrada Família has been under construction since 1882 and is still unfinished.
• Spanish is the native language of 500 million people — 2nd in the world.