Geographical Position. Coastlines

1. Study the physical map of Europe. Compare its scale with
   that of the map of the Hemispheres. On which is the scale larger?
2. Find on the map the latitudes and longitudes of the extremi­ties of Europe (islands excluded): Nordkyn Cape in the north, Point
   Marroqui in the south and Cape da Roca in the west.
3. What oceans are the coasts of Europe washed by? Which  sea
   separates Europe from Africa?

Geographical Position and Boundaries. Europe is a comparati­vely small part of the world. It has an area of a little over 10 mil­lion square kilometres, which is only one-fifteenth of the earth's total land surface. It is wonderfully situated, lying almost entirely within the temperate zone, close to the other parts of the world and surrounded by navigable seas.
Europe occupies part of the Eurasian continent and has extensive land boundaries with Asia in the east. The ancient inhabitants of the Mediterranean region called the regions lying to the east of the Mediterranean Sea Asia (from the Phoenician word «aszu»=sunrise). The regions to the west they called Europe (from «ereb» = sunset). The land boundary between Europe and Asia is conventional. It is usually depicted as running along the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains and the Ural River to the Caspian Sea, and from (here along the Kuma-Manych Depression to the Sea of Azov. (The Kuma-Manych Depression was formerly a strait; now it is crossed by two rivers: the Kuma and Manych.) From there the boundary is continued by water, across the Azov and Black Seas and along the straits linking the Black and Mediterranean Seas.

Fig. 7. The distance of various spots of Europe from the sea. Those at the same distance from the sea are connected by lines. The figures represent the distance in kilometres.

All the other boundaries of Europe: northern, western and southern, are formed by seas and oceans.

connects Europe with America and the other parts of the world. Com­munication with Northern Asia is maintained by way of the Arctic Ocean in the north.
Coastlines. In no other part of the world is the coastline so indented as in Europe. The seas penetrate far inland and form nu­merous peninsulas and islands. These occupy more than one-third of the total land surface of Europe. There are no places in Western Europe more than 700 kilometres from the sea, and more than 1,600 kilometres in Eastern Europe (Fig. 7).