Baetic System

Map of the Baetic System in Andalusia

The Baetic System or Betic System (Template:Langx) is one of the main systems of mountain ranges in Spain. Located in the southern and eastern Iberian Peninsula, it is also known as the Cordilleras Béticas (Baetic Mountain Ranges) or Baetic Mountains. The name of the mountain system derives from the ancient Roman region of Baetica, one of the Imperial Roman provinces of ancient Hispania.

GeographyEdit

The Baetic System is made up of multiple mountain ranges that reach from western Andalusia to the Region of Murcia, southern Castile-La Mancha and southern Land of Valencia. To the north, the Baetic Ranges are separated from the Meseta Central and the Sierra Morena by the basin of the Guadalquivir. The Iberian System rises north of the eastern part of the Prebaetic System, the northernmost part of the Baetic System. The mountain ranges that are part of this system are generally aligned \along a southwest-northeast direction.<ref>Granada Natural - Las Zonas Externas</ref>

The best-known range of the Baetic System is the Sierra Nevada, which contains the Mulhacén, the highest mountain in continental Spain and in the Iberian Peninsula. The Rock of Gibraltar is also considered part of the Baetic System,<ref>A Guide to the Upper Rock Nature Reserve Template:Webarchive</ref> but not the Cabo de Gata area further east which includes rocks of volcanic origin.<ref>European geoparks website Template:Webarchive</ref>

GeologyEdit

The Baetic System as a geological feature belongs to a larger orogeny usually called the Gibraltar Arc, which represents the westernmost edge of the Alpine Orogeny. The geodynamic mechanisms responsible for its formation are so far relatively unknown.<ref>Wes Gibbons & Teresa Moreno, The geology of Spain. Geological Society of London, 2003, Template:ISBN</ref>

Geologically the Rif mountains in Morocco and the Serra de Tramuntana in the island of Majorca are, respectively, Southwestern and Northeastern extensions of the Baetic System.<ref>Dan Davis, Commercial Navigation in the Greek and Roman World</ref> The Gibraltar Arc geological region follows the Moroccan coast from Oujda in the east to Tangier in the west, then crosses the Strait of Gibraltar and goes east again from Cádiz to Valencia and the Balearic Islands.

EcologyEdit

The Baetic System is home to a number of Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub plant communities, including shrublands, oak woodlands, broadleaf forests, and coniferous forests, which vary with elevation, soils, and topography.

The Baetic System, together with the Rif Mountains of Morocco, which face the Baetic Ranges across the Alboran Sea, is one of the Mediterranean basin's ten biodiversity hotspots, known to ecologists as the Baetic-Rifan complex. The Baetic mountains are home to a rich assemblage of Mediterranean plants, including a number of relict species from the ancient laurel forests, which covered much of the Mediterranean basin millions of years ago when it was more humid.

SubdivisionEdit

The Baetic System is divided into the following sub-chains (from south to north):

Penibaetic SystemEdit

The Penibaetic System includes the highest point in the peninsula, the 3,478 m high Mulhacén in the Sierra Nevada; other ranges and features are: Template:Div col