Europe is the second smallest continent in the world, only behind Oceania. [Citation needed] It has an area of 10 359 358 km², which represents 6.8% of the landmass. At the end of 2016 it is made up of fifty countries, including Russia and Turkey, although most of its territories are Asian. Its maximum distance from north to south is 4300 km and from east to west 5600 km. It is located in the northern hemisphere. It is linked to Asia, forming a huge peninsula within what is called Eurasia, and owes its characteristics of individuality, in addition to physical elements, to features of a historical and human order. It limits with the sea by three of the four cardinal points. Broadly speaking, with the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south, which shows a very important oceanic influence given its wide façade formed by almost 38,000 km of coastline and which, in addition, reaches it characterize as one of its most important physical features, determining the climate in most of the continent. To the east, its limit is continental and, according to most geographers, it is located at the eastern foot of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caucasus mountain range and the Black Sea until it reaches the Sea of Marmara. The continent is also characterized by having a large part of solid land, to which a much more articulated part is contrasted, made up of islands and peninsulas. The islands represent 8% and the peninsulas 27% of Europe. The contour of these islands and peninsulas is very diverse and rugged due to the vast extension of its coasts.
The average height of the continent is approximately 600 m above sea level, similar to the average elevation of both North and South America, but considerably lower than that of Asia, 950 m. In contrast to other continents, it is characterized by the lack of extremely high or extremely low areas. The lands below 180 m occupy an unusually small part of its surface, while the highest elevation is not only much smaller than that of South America or Asia, but the area that exceeds 3000 m is practically insignificant. As a general rule, the largest plateaus are in the east and south, while a progressive decrease in altitude is observed towards the west and north. Apart from the lowlands and the Atlas Mountains, the continent can be divided into two regions, high and low plateaus. The dividing line would run from the middle of the Red Sea to about 6 degrees south in the west.