page_title: Castilla–La Mancha
section_title: Terrain
hierarchical_section_title: Castilla–La Mancha / Geography / Terrain
caption_attribution_description: 09042009 164759 CEC 0091 This is a photography of a Special Area of Conservation in Spain with the ID: ES4230014. Natura2000 entry, EEA entry
context_page_description: Castilla–La Mancha, or Castile La Mancha, is an autonomous community of Spain. Comprising the provinces of Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara and Toledo, it was created in 1982. It is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Extremadura. It is one of the most sparsely populated of Spain's regions. Albacete is the largest and most populous city. The government headquarters are in Toledo and the High Court headquarters are in Albacete.
  Castilla–La Mancha was formerly grouped with the province of Madrid into New Castile, but with the advent of the modern Spanish system of autonomous communities, it was separated due to great demographic disparity between the capital and the remaining New-Castilian provinces. Also, distinct from the former New Castile, Castilla–La Mancha added the province of Albacete, which had been part of Murcia; adding Albacete placed all of the historic region of La Mancha within this single region.
  It is mostly in this region where the story of the famous Spanish novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes is situated, due to which La Mancha is internationally well-known.
context_section_description: The region has two distinct types of terrain. The Meseta is a vast, uniform plain with little relief. Within that uniformity, the most outstanding variation in altitude is that of the Montes de Toledo, with peaks such as La Villuerca (1,601 meters (5,253 ft)), the highest peak of the Montes de Toledo range, and Rocigalgo (1,447 meters (4,747 ft)).
  At the south of that system are the Montes de Toledo, which cross the region from west to east, dividing the Tagus (Tajo) and Guadiana drainage basins, forming the southern slope of the basin of the former and the northern slope of the latter.
  In contrast, a more mountainous zone surrounds the Meseta and serves as the region's natural border. In the north of the Province of Guadalajara, bordering Madrid and Segovia, is a mountain range forming part of the Sistema Central, among which can be distinguished the mountain ranges Pela, Ayllón, Somosierra, Barahona and Ministra, with the headwaters of the rivers Jarama, Cañamares and Henares. The Sistema Central also penetrates the Province of Toledo, which intersects a southerly part of the Sierra de Gredos, known as the Sierra de San Vicente, delimited on the north by the river Tiétar and on the south by the Alberche and the Tagus.
  On the northwest is the Sistema Ibérico, where there is important fluvial and especially karstic activity, which has given rise to such landscapes as the Ciudad Encantada, the Callejones de Las Majadas and the Hoces del Cabriel.
  In the southeast is the ridge of the Sierra Morena, the southern border of the Meseta Central and the region's border with Andalusia. Within the Sierra Morena, distinction can be made between the Sierra Madrona, Sierra de Alcudia and Sierra de San Andrés. At the other southern extreme of Castilla–La Mancha, the Sierra de Alcaraz and Sierra del Segura form part of the Sistema Bético.
caption: Natural land formations in Ciudad Encantada.
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