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@opencage@en.osm.townThis week in #geoweirdness we return to the Iberian peninsula to consider the geographic oddities of Spain 
1/n
2/ First up you might have seen that Spain has been growing in recent years, due to volcanic eruptions in the Canary Islands 
3/ Staying in "Macronesia", Spain until recently has a dispute with Portugal 
over the Exclusive Economic Zone around the Savage Islands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savage_Islands#Disputed_territory
4/ Aside from the Canary Islands though, most people think Spain is only in Europe, but it has two “Ciudades autónomas” in northern Africa on the 
Moroccan coast: Ceuta and Melilla
5/ As we covered in our 
French #geoweirdness thread, Spain also has an exclave completely surrounded by France: the village of Llívia
6/ There's also the delightful border dispute of Pheasant Island, a tiny, unoccupied river island that France and Spain alternate ownership of every 6 months
7/ There's of course also the very long-running dispute with the 
UK over 
Gibraltar.
The situation has been made more complicated by Brexit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_Brexit_on_Gibraltar
BTW if British Overseas Territories are your cup of tea, we recently did a #geoweirdness thread about them:
8/ Even setting aside border disputes though Spain is, frankly, un pais muy complicado, as seen in its internal admin divisions, a mix of "regions", "nations", "historic communities", etc
9/ the complexity arises because Spain is a country of many different languages and cultures
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalities_and_regions_of_Spain
10/ The communities within Spain have many, often disagreeing, viewpoints. Including even about whether they are part of Spain.
It is a dynamic situation, as most recently seen in 2017 with the unilateral declaration of independence of the Republic of Catalonia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_declaration_of_independence
11/ This diversity is also reflected in local OpenStreetMap communities and over the years it’s been our pleasure to interview some on our blog:
OSM in the Basque Country
https://blog.opencagedata.com/post/100820580653/country-profile-state-of-openstreetmap-in-the
in Galicia
https://blog.opencagedata.com/post/openstreetmap-in-galicia
in Catalonia
https://blog.opencagedata.com/post/118777421933/country-profile-openstreetmap-in-catalonia
12/ Final geoweird point: Spain’s second largest city is beautiful Barcelona, one of the top destinations in Europe.
Often confusing for tourists, though, is that the city maps do NOT have north 
at the top!
BTW - the next Geomob Barcelona (the geo meetup we organize) will be on Sept 20th
https://thegeomob.com/post/sept-20th-2023-geomobbcn-details
13/ We hope you enjoyed our look at the geographic strangeness of Spain
Thanks for reading (and sharing) 
.
We have more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc on our blog. Some are still on twitter, but over time we are moving them to mastodon.
@opencage Even more confusing, maps aren't even orientated towards the orient but north, despite it being literally in the name.
@opencage i found the interview with Gari Araolaza very pleasant to read, as I feel the same way with the majority of my fellow #osm junkies from the country of Bulgaria. I feel that they only update the bare minimum and leave vast swaths of the country as a blank slate, possibly never to be mapped fully.
@opencage
Ceuta, not Cueta (spelling mistake)
@jrfern Gracias, ha sido corregido
@opencage
Very good Spanish and a very interesting series
@opencage
Who was the last person to compare these ES Nth African enclaves to Gibraltar?
@opencage fun fact, the Spain/Portugal border is the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, and one of the oldest borders in the world, almost unchanged since 1297.
@vpermar did not know that, thanks
@vpermar @opencage ...but the border itself is not clear, since Olivenza is (technically) contested territory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivenza#Claims_of_sovereignty
@IvanSanchez @vpermar as covered in our Portugal thread from a few months back
@opencage Late reply, but the (until recently) annual tradition of the Portuguese President setting foot on the Selvagens in order to maintain ownership is the most hilarious thing to me.
@opencage Spain also has another three singular places in Africa: Chafarinas islands, Peñón de Alhucemas and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, having the latter the shortest land border of the world.
