mouth_of_the_watercourse pas 
Ceuta ( assimilated pronunciation , also Arabic :  , " Sabtah ") is an Spanish autonomous city located on the north coast of Africa , sharing a western border with Morocco . Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar , Ceuta lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean ___MASK75___ and the ___MASK27___ . Ceuta , along with the Spanish exclave Melilla , is one of nine populated Spanish territories in Africa and one of two populated territories on mainland Africa . It was part of Cádiz province until 14 March 1995 when the city ' s Statute of Autonomy was passed . France , officially the French Republic , is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories . The European , or metropolitan , area of France extends from the Mediterranean ___MASK75___ to the English Channel and the North ___MASK75___ , and from the Rhine to the ___MASK27___ . Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic , Pacific and Indian oceans . France spans and had a total population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017 . It is a unitary semi - presidential republic with the capital in Paris , the country ' s largest city and main cultural and commercial centre . Other major urban centres include Marseille , Lyon , Lille , Nice , Toulouse and Bordeaux . Africa is the world ' s second - largest and second - most - populous continent . At about 30 . 3 million km² ( 11 . 7 million square miles ) including adjacent islands , it covers 6 % of Earth ' s total surface area and 20 . 4 % of its total land area . With 1 . 1 billion people as of 2013 , it accounts for about 15 % of the world ' s human population . The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean ___MASK75___ to the north , both the Suez Canal and the Red ___MASK75___ along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast , the Indian Ocean to the southeast , and the ___MASK27___ to the west . The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos . It contains 54 fully recognized sovereign states ( countries ), nine territories and two " de facto " independent states with limited or no recognition . Asturias , officially the Principality of Asturias , is an autonomous community in north - west Spain . It is coextensive with the province of Asturias , and contains some of the territory that was part of the larger Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages . Divided into eight " comarcas " ( counties ), the autonomous community of Asturias is bordered by Cantabria to the east , by Castile and León to the south , by Galicia to the west , and by the ___MASK69___ to the north . A ria is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley . It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the ___MASK75___ . Typically , rias have a dendritic , treelike outline although they can be straight and without significant branches . This pattern is inherited from the dendritic drainage pattern of the flooded river valley . The drowning of river valleys along a stretch of coast and formation of rias results in an extremely irregular and indented coastline . Often , there are islands , which are summits of partly submerged , pre - existing hill peaks . The ___MASK69___ ( Basque : " Bizkaiko Golkoa ," ) is a gulf of the northeast ___MASK27___ located south of the Celtic Sea . It lies along the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border , and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal . The Pas River is located in the region of Cantabria in the northern part of Spain . The river flows through the autonomous community of Cantabria and empties into the Cantabric ___MASK75___ . Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia . Europe is bordered by the ___MASK28___ to the north , the ___MASK27___ to the west , and the Mediterranean Sea to the south . To the east and southeast , Europe is generally considered as separated from Asia by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains , the Ural River , the Caspian and Black Seas , and the waterways of the Turkish Straits . Yet the non - oceanic borders of Europe  a concept dating back to classical antiquity  are arbitrary . The primarily physiographic term " continent " as applied to Europe also incorporates cultural and political elements whose discontinuities are not always reflected by the continent ' s current overland boundaries . The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean ___MASK75___ , near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula . An archipelago , sometimes called an island group or island chain , is a chain , cluster or collection of islands . The word " archipelago " is derived from the Greek "  -  arkhi -" (" chief ") and "   pélagos " (" ___MASK75___ ") through the Italian " arcipelago ". In Italian , possibly following a tradition of antiquity , the Archipelago ( from medieval Greek "*  " and Latin " archipelagus ") was the proper name for the ___MASK33___ and , later , usage shifted to refer to the Aegean Islands ( since the ___MASK75___ is remarkable for its large number of islands ). It is now used to refer to any island group or , sometimes , to a ___MASK75___ containing a small number of scattered islands . The Mediterranean ___MASK75___ ( pronounced ) is a ___MASK75___ connected to the ___MASK27___ , 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 . The ___MASK75___ is sometimes considered a part of the ___MASK27___ , although it is usually identified as a separate body of water . Biscay ( in Basque and officially Bizkaia and in Spanish Vizcaya ) is a province of Spain located just south of the ___MASK69___ . The name also refers to a historical territory of the Basque Country , heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay . Its capital city is Bilbao . It is one of the most prosperous and important provinces of Spain as a result of the massive industrialization in the last years of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century . Since the deep deindustrialization of the 1970s , the economy has come to rely more on the services sector . The ___MASK27___ is the second largest of the world ' s oceans with a total area of about . It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth ' s surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area . It separates the " Old World " from the " New World ". The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , are an archipelago and autonomous community of Spain located on the ___MASK27___ , west of Morocco . The Canaries are among the outermost regions ( OMR ) of the European Union proper . It is also one of the eight regions with special consideration of historical nationality recognized as such by the Spanish Government . Morocco (', lit . " The West "; '), officially known as the Kingdom of Morocco (', lit . " The Western Kingdom "; '), is a sovereign country located in the Maghreb region of North Africa . Geographically , Morocco is characterized by a rugged mountainous interior , large tracts of desert , and a lengthy coastline along the ___MASK27___ and Mediterranean Sea . Portugal ( Portuguese : ), officially the Portuguese Republic ( Portuguese : ), is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe . It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe . To the west and south it is bordered by the ___MASK27___ and to the east and north by Spain . The Portugal  Spain border is long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union . The republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira , both autonomous regions with their own regional governments . Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a sovereign state largely located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe , with two large archipelagos , the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean ___MASK75___ and the Canary Islands off the North African Atlantic coast , two cities Ceuta and Melilla in the North African mainland and several small islands in the Alboran ___MASK75___ near the Moroccan coast . Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean ___MASK75___ except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar ; to the north and northeast by France , Andorra , and the Bay of Biscay ; and to the west and northwest by Portugal and the ___MASK27___ . It is the only European country to have a border with an African country ( Morocco ) and its African territory accounts for nearly 5 % of its population , mostly in the Canary Islands but also in Ceuta and Melilla . The ___MASK93___ is the coastal sea of the Atlantic Ocean that washes the northern coast of Spain and the southwest side of the Atlantic coast of France ; it represents the south area of the Bay of Biscay . It extends from the cape Estaca de Bares in the province of Corunna , to the mouth of the Adour river , near the city of Bayonne on the coast of the department of Pyrenees Atlantiques in French Basque Country . It washes 800 kilometers of coastline shared by the provinces of Corunna , Lugo , Asturias , Cantabria , Biscay and Gipuzkoa , and Labourd . The Alboran ___MASK75___ is the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean ___MASK75___ , lying between the Iberian Peninsula and the north of Africa . The Strait of Gibraltar , which lies at the west end of the Alboran ___MASK75___ , connects the Mediterranean with the ___MASK27___ . Cantabria is a Spanish historical community and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city . It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community ( province of Biscay ), on the south by Castile and León ( provinces of León , Palencia and Burgos ), on the west by the Principality of Asturias , and on the north by the ___MASK93___ ( Bay of Biscay ).