Majorca / Mallorca

Area: 3,650 sq.km/1,410 sq.mi

Population: 582,000

Majorca (Mallorca in Spanish), the largest and most visited of the Balearics, is made up of three markedly different parts. Running parallel to the northwest coast is the Sierra del Norte, a range of wooded hills which includes the highest point on the islands, the Puig Mayor (1,443m/4,734ft). The hills fall steeply down to the sea in much-indented cliffs which form picturesque little coves and creeks (calas). In the southeast of the island is the much lower Sierra de Levante (San Salvador, 509m/1,670ft), in which are a number of stalactitic caves. Here too there are innumerable calas. Between these two ranges of hills the bays of Alcudia and Pollensa to the northeast and Palma to the southwest cut deep into the Llanura del Centro, a fertile plain given up to intensive agriculture.