*Europe is the second smallest continent in area (4,140,625 square miles), larger only than Australia—that is, if Europe is even considered a continent at all.  Some people (including many geographers in Russia) class it as part of a larger continent, Eurasia.

*If Europe is a continent (or even if it is merely a peninsula or Eurasia), it is typically considered to start at the Ural Mountains in Russia and the Caucasus Mountains just north of Turkey. 

*Since Europe is arguably a peninsula, almost any point in Europe lies relatively close to the ocean—300 miles or less in most cases.  As a consequence, Europeans have always used the seas, and in some cases, fought with them.

*The Netherlands (meaning lowlands) are famous for reclaiming lands (called polders) from the sea, by building dikes and draining the lands behind them.  About 25% of the Netherlands is below sea level, and, despite the best efforts of the Dutch, they occasionally suffer serious floods.

*Europe also has several major peninsulas jutting out from the continent.  The Iberian Peninsula holds Spain and Portugal, and is cut off from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees Mountains.  South-eastern Europe fits onto the Balkan Peninsula, which holds Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and the other Balkan nations.  The Scandinavian Peninsula, of course, has the Scandinavian nations of Norway and Sweden.

*Even more tied to the sea than Europe’s peninsulas are her islands.  Iceland, in the North Atlantic, is a volcanic island, where most of the nation’s heat still comes from steam piped in from volcanoes.  The British Isles—Ireland and Great Britain—are among the largest and most important islands in the world:  Great Britain is the world’s 8th largest island, the largest island in Europe (covering 84,400 square miles), and the home of one of the world’s most influential nations.  The Mediterranean is full of islands, many of them volcanic in origin, and some of them the home of independent nations such as Cyprus and Malta.

*Europe also has several important mountain ranges.  Although none are as high as the Himalayas or as long as the Andes, they have served to separate Europe into different countries throughout history, creating incredibly diverse cultures and the highest concentration of highly developed nations in the world, in part because the separate countries of Europe grew strong while competing against one another.

*The Alps are the major range of Central Europe, and we can see that they have been important most of recorded history by the fact that Alps simply means ‘mountains.’  The highest mountain in the Alps is Mont Blanc on the Franco-Italian border; it is 15,780 feet high.  They Alps run from southern France into Slovenia, and are typically seen as the division between Southern Europe and the rest of the continent. 

*Another major range is the Pyrenees which separate Spain from France.

*In Russia, the Ural Mountains are often seen as the eastern border of Europe, and, though they are not a high chain, they are fairly long.  The Caucasus mountains are seen as another boundary of Europe, and they are also in or near Russia, although they also have a number of independent countries (and countries that wish to be independent) in their valleys.  They are also very steep, and Europe’s highest mountain is found there:  Mount Elbrus is 18,510 feet high.

*In addition to the mountains of Europe, there are a few other highland regions, notably the Massif Central of France.

*Europe also has some notable flatlands, particularly the North European Plain, which stretches from Germany into Russia.  It is both a fertile agricultural region and an area that historically had important deposits of metals, so that many industrial cities grew up there in the 1800s. 

*Europe has a number of important rivers.  The Thames, in England, in deep and wide, and allows ocean-going ships to sail up to London.  The Rhine flows from the Swiss Alps through France, Germany, and the Netherlands, allowing trade through those nations; many of their industrial cities are along the Rhine.  The Danube is Eastern Europe’s major waterway, flowing through many of the capital cities of Central and Eastern Europe, and emptying into the Black Sea.

*Siberia is the name of a vast region in Asian Russia, that is, of the most part, cold, desolate, and sparsely populated.

*Although Russia touches the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and (through the Baltic Sea) the Atlantic Ocean, it has difficulty maintaining warm-water ports that will not freeze in the winter.  For this reason, its ports on the Black Sea remain very important, even though the Black Sea’s outlet to the Mediterranean is controlled by Turkey.

*Russia also touches two vast inland lakes.  The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest lake (covering 143,000 sq. miles), and is known as a sea because, as an inland lake, it collects salt and other minerals, so that it is highly saline.  Lake Baikal is the world’s deepest freshwater lake (over one mile deep).

*Although Russia’s Asian rivers are very long, they are not nearly as important to the people and economy of Russia as the European rivers of the Volga, and the Don, which lie at the heart of Russia’s agricultural region.  They are also important for fishing, especially the Volga, the major source of sturgeon and their eggs (known as caviar).