Cabo Touriñán is a small peninsula that is the most westerly point of
Peninsular Spain
Peninsular Spain refers to that part of Spanish territory located within the Iberian Peninsula, thus excluding other parts of Spain: the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, and a number of islets and crags off the coast of Mor ...
. It is located in the municipality of
Muxía, which is itself located within the
province of A Coruña
The province of A Coruña (; es, La Coruña ; historical en, link=no, Corunna) is the northwesternmost province of Spain, and one of the four provinces which constitute the autonomous community of Galicia. This province is surrounded by the At ...
and the
autonomous community of Galicia. The Cape, along with the rest of Muxía, is best known as a destination for pilgrims who extend the
Camino de Santiago by walking to the Atlantic coast after reaching the holy city of
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...
.
Description
The cape is a small
peninsula that juts about 1 km into the sea, the narrowest section being an
isthmus
An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmus ...
150 metres wide between the coasts of Balal and Cuño. Its maximum altitude is 93 metres above sea level. The rock is made of is
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
, the erosion of which has caused the formation of deposits of pebbles, known as ''coídos'', and stony bars, which formed an
islet
An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanen ...
such as the so-called ''A Ínsua'' on the west side of the cape. The western point of the cape, ''Os Buxeirados'', has a series of rocks that go into the sea around 300 to 400 m, known as ''A Laxe de Buxeirados'' or ''Bajos de Buxeirados''. The rocks have proved dangerous for navigation, causing some serious shipwrecks.
Its rugged landscape causes the cape to have vegetation to be basically just thorny reed or gorse like ''
Ulex eruopaeus''. In the north of the cape, there is a
lighthouse and complementary buildings that were established 15 December 1898.
Name
The name comes from the nearby parish of Touriñán, in which the cape is located, and that must go back to the Latin name, which is supposed to be "''Taurinius''" or "''Taurinianus''" through the
genitive "''Tauriniani''".
Gallery
File:Illa do Castelo, Touriñán.jpg, Illa do Castelo.
File:Costa da morte.jpg,
File:Cabo_Touriñán2.JPG,
See also
*
Cape Finisterre
*
Extreme points of Spain
*
Touriñán Lighthouse
References
Tourinan
Geography of the Province of A Coruña
Extreme points of Spain
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