Prehistoric man came to the western foothills of the Pyrenees in search of a place to settle and live. Close to the natural border formed by the mountains that stretch across the land joining the Iberian peninsula to the rest of Europe, he found what he was looking for.
The Basques have lived uninterruptedly in this small region since the beginnings of recorded timBy maintaining their age-old cultural traditions, and keeping their historic identity alive, the Basques provide a link with man’s distant past. Euskara , the Basque language, is probably the oldest surviving language in Europe.
The Basque Country covers a surface area of 20,664 square kilometres at the western end of the Pyrenees on the Bay of Biscay. Today it consists of seven herrialdes , or districts which, for political and administrative purposes, form part of two different European countries: Araba , Bizkaia , Gipuzkoa and Nafarroa are in Spain, and Lapurdi , Zuberoa and Benafarroa are in France.
Three of the Basque Homeland’s seven historic territories, Araba , Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa , in the north of Spain, covering a total surface area of 7,234 square kilometres, are grouped together to form a political unit known as EUSKADI , or the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country
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