Southern Europe is the southern region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, southern France, Spain, Turkey, and Vatican City.
The geographical and ethno-cultural borders of southern Europe are the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Balkan Mountains to the north and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.
Satellite image of the Iberian Peninsula
Satellite image of the Apennine Peninsula
Satellite image of the Balkan Peninsula
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant in West Asia. The Mediterranean has played a central role in the history of Western civilization. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago.
With its highly indented coastline and large number of islands, Greece has the longest Mediterranean coastline.
Greek (red) and Phoenician (yellow) colonies in antiquity c. the 6th century BC
The Battle of Lepanto, 1571, ended in victory for the European Holy League against the Ottoman Turks.
The bombardment of Algiers by the Anglo-Dutch fleet in support of an ultimatum to release European slaves, August 1816