PYRENEES

Spanish Pirineos, French Pyrnes, Catalan Pireneus mountain chain of southwestern Europe, consisting of flat-topped massifs and folded linear ranges stretching 270 miles (430 km) from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean on the west. Representing the geologic renewal of an old mountain chain, the Pyrenees forms a high wall between France on the north and Spain on the south. Generally the crest of the chain marks the boundary between the two countries, and the tiny, autonomous principality of Andorra lies among its peaks. The Pyrenees range has a maximum width of about 100 miles (160 km) at its centre. The approximately 9,000-foot- (2,750-metre-) high wall of the permanently snow-capped central Pyrenees includes the highest pointthe Aneto Peak at 11,169 feet (3,404 m); more easterly and westerly extensions of the range decline sharply, especially to the east. Extensive evidence of Quaternary glaciation (within the past 1.6 million years) in the central Pyrenees includes hanging valleys, cirques, and glacial lakes. Areas of the Pyrenees to the north and west receive greater and more regular amounts of precipitation than areas to the south and east. Corn (maize), cereals, and fruits are grown in the western valleys, and olives and vineyards are commonplace in the eastern valleys. The climatic influence of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean is less in the central Pyrenees where intermontane valleys experience long, severe winters and the chief occupation is the seasonal grazing of sheep and cattle. Spanish Pirineos, French Pyrnes, Catalan Pireneus mountain chain of southwestern Europe that consists of flat-topped massifs and folded linear ranges. It stretches from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Bay of Biscay on the Atlantic Ocean on the west. The Pyrenees form a high wall between France and Spain that has played a significant role in the history of both countries and of Europe as a whole. The range is some 270 miles (430 kilometres) long; it is barely six miles wide at its eastern end, but at its centre it reaches some 80 miles in width. At its western end it blends imperceptibly into the Cantabrian Mountains along the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Except in a few places, where Spanish territory juts northward or French southward, the crest of the chain marks the boundary between the two countries, though the tiny, autonomous principality of Andorra lies among its peaks. The highest point is Aneto Peak, at 11,169 feet (3,404 metres), in the Maladeta (Spanish: Accursed) massif of the Central Pyrenees. The Pyrenees long have been a formidable land barrier between Spain and Portugal on the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe; as a consequence, these two countries traditionally have developed stronger associations with Africa than with the rest of Europe, and they have become tied to the sea. From Carlit Peak (9,584 feet) near the eastern limit of the Pyrenees to the peaks of Orhy and Anie, a succession of mountains rise nearly 9,800 feet; at only a few places, all well to the west, can the chain be crossed through passes lower than 6,500 feet. In both the lower eastern and northwestern sectors, rivers dissect the landscape into numerous small basins. The range is flanked on both sides by broad depressionsthe Aquitaine and Languedoc to the north and the Ebro to the southboth receiving waters from the major rivers flowing out of the mountains, the Garonne of France and the major tributaries of the Ebro of Spain. Additional reading Research articles on the Pyrenees appear in such journals as Pyrnes (quarterly), published by the Muse Pyrnen du Chteau-Fort de Lourdes; Revue gographique des Pyrnes et du Sud-Ouest (quarterly); Annales du Midi (five times a year); and Pirineos: publicacin de la Estacin de Estudios Pirenaicos (annual). General surveys include Henry Myhill, The Spanish Pyrenees (1966); Franois Taillefer (ed.), Les Pyrnes: de la montagne l'homme (1974); Georges Viers, Les Pyrnes, 3rd ed. (1973); and Claude Dendaletche, Pyrnes (1982). Roger Higham, Road to the Pyrenees (1971); and J.M. Scott, From Sea to Ocean: Walking Along the Pyrenees (1969), are descriptive works based on travel experiences. Paul G. Bahn, Pyrenean Prehistory: A Palaeoeconomic Survey of the French Sites (1983); and Daniel Alexander Gmez-Ibez, The Western Pyrenees: Differential Evolution of the French and Spanish Borderland (1975), are historical geographies. Works on human geography include Michel Chevalier, La Vie humaine dans les Pyrnes arigeoises (1956); Llus Sol I Sabars, Los Pirineos: el medio y el hombre (1951); and Neil Lands, History, People, and Places in the French Pyrenees (1980). Frdric Og