Sistema Central
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sistema_Central".

Map of the major geographic features of the Iberian Peninsula. The Sistema Central is just north of the 40° parallel.

The Sistema Central is a mountain range on the Iberian Peninsula and a primary feature of the Iberian plateau (Meseta Central) splitting the plateau into two parts. The Sistema Central runs from east to west roughly along the southern border of the Spanish autonomous community of Castile and León continuing into Portugal.

The range consists of several smaller ranges of which the major ones are the Sierra de Guadarrama which runs approximately along the border of the Madrid and Castile and León autonomous communities and the Sierra de Gredos north of the border between Castile and León and Castile-La Mancha stretching into Extremadura. The latter contains the range's highest mountain, Pico Almanzor, at 2,592 m.

Amongst the other ranges of the Sistema Central are the Sierra de Ayllón, the Sierra de Ávila, the Sierra de la Paramera, the Sierra de Candelario, the Sierra de Gata and the Serra da Estrela in Portugal.

Local inhabitants generally refer to the Sistema Central by the names of its smaller constituent ranges.