Peninsula

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"Peninsular" redirects here. For the Spanish caste, see Peninsulars. For other uses, see Peninsula (disambiguation).
The world's largest peninsula, the Arabian Peninsula
Baja California Peninsula, Mexico

A peninsula (Latin: paeninsula from paene "almost" and insula "island") is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland.[1] The surrounding water is usually understood to belong to a single contiguous body,[2][3] but is not always explicitly defined as such.[not in citation given][4] A peninsula can also be a headland, cape, island promontory, bill, point, or spit.[5] A point is generally considered a tapering piece of land projecting into a body of water that is less prominent than a cape.[6] In English, the plural of peninsula is peninsulas or, less commonly, peninsulae.

Africa[edit]

The Horn of Africa also known as the Somali peninsula.

Horn of Africa[edit]

Main article: Horn of Africa

The Horn of Africa is a peninsula compassing of the countries of Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Ethiopia.

North Africa[edit]

Other[edit]

Oceania[edit]

Australia[edit]

A beach on the Mornington Peninsula

Papua New Guinea[edit]

New Zealand[edit]

NASA satellite photo of Otago Peninsula and Otago Harbour. The city of Dunedin is located at the isthmus at lower left.
In the North Island
In the South Island

Europe[edit]

  • Europe is sometimes considered to be a large peninsula extending off Eurasia.[7] As such, it is one of the largest peninsulas in the world and the only one to have the status as a full continent, largely as a matter of convention rather than science. It is composed of many smaller peninsulas, the four main component peninsulas being the Iberian, Scandinavian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas.

Balkan Peninsula[edit]

The Balkans is a peninsula including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and the European part of Turkey.

Denmark[edit]

France[edit]

Iberian Peninsula[edit]

Satellite view of the Iberian Peninsula
Main article: Iberian Peninsula

Encompassing continental Spain and Portugal, Andorra, British overseas territory of Gibraltar and a small amount of southern France.

Ireland[edit]

Italy[edit]

Satellite view of the Italian Peninsula

Russia[edit]

Curonian Spit, a large peninsula in the Baltic Sea

Scandinavia[edit]

Main article: Scandinavian peninsula

Scandinavia is a peninsula encompassing present-day Sweden, Norway, and part of Finland.

Turkey[edit]

Main article: Peninsulas of Turkey

Ukraine[edit]

United Kingdom[edit]

England[edit]

Southwestern England and the English Channel. France's Brittany Peninsula is also shown at the bottom of the picture.

Scotland[edit]

Wales[edit]

Northern Ireland[edit]

Channel Islands[edit]

Other peninsulas in Europe[edit]

A small peninsula in Croatia
Au peninsula, Lake Zürich, Switzerland

Asia[edit]

China[edit]

Russia[edit]

Turkey[edit]

Map of Anatolian Peninsula at the Asian part of Turkey.

Eastern Mediterranean[edit]

Indian subcontinent and South Asia[edit]

South India (Peninsular India).

The Indostanic Peninsula or Indian subcontinent is itself a peninsula, the only land feature in the world that is widely recognized as a subcontinent in the English language.

Japan[edit]

See also: List of peninsulas of Japan

Kyūshū[edit]

Honshū[edit]

Hokkaido[edit]

Kazakhstan[edit]

Korea[edit]

Main article: Korean Peninsula
Korean Peninsula.

The whole land mass encompassing North and South Korea is a peninsula, surrounded by the Sea of Korea on the east, the East China Sea to the south, and the West Sea to the west, the Korea Strait connecting the first two bodies of water.

Taiwan[edit]

Persian Gulf[edit]

South East Asia[edit]

Indonesia[edit]

Malaysia[edit]

Philippines[edit]

Vietnam[edit]

North America[edit]

Canada[edit]

Greenland[edit]

Mexico[edit]

The Yucatán Peninsula

United States[edit]

Alaska[edit]

California[edit]

Florida[edit]

The Floridian Peninsula, shown by a NASA satellite image.

Florida is a well-known example of a large peninsula, with its land area divided between the larger Florida peninsula and the smaller Florida panhandle on the north and west. It has several smaller peninsulas within it:

Maryland[edit]

Mid-Atlantic shoreline showing, from the upper right, the Cape May Peninsula of New Jersey, Delaware Bay, the Delmarva Peninsula, and Chesapeake Bay. Also visible are the peninsulas of Maryland and Virginia along the Chesapeake's shores.

Massachusetts[edit]

Cape Cod, a peninsula of Massachusetts

Michigan[edit]

Main articles: Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Lower Peninsula of Michigan
The large Michigan Peninsulas from space, showing both the Upper Peninsula and Lower Peninsula.

Michigan - the only bi-peninsular state - is very distinguishable for its mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula of Michigan which includes:

The rifle-shaped Upper Peninsula of Michigan contains:

New Jersey[edit]

New York[edit]

Long Island, New York, with its North and South Forks.
  • Irondequoit, NY (Geographical headland)

Utah[edit]

  • Antelope Island, Utah, becomes a peninsula when waters are low, on the south shore of the Great Salt Lake
  • Promontory Peninsula, on the north eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake
  • Stansbury Peninsula becomes an island when waters are high, on the south shore of the Great Salt Lake

Virginia[edit]

Washington[edit]

Other states[edit]

Central America[edit]

South America[edit]

Caribbean[edit]

Antarctica[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries, ed. (2004). Word Histories and Mysteries: From Abracadabra to Zeus. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 216. ISBN 978-0547350271. OCLC 55746553. 
  2. ^ "Definition of peninsula". American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved 2013-03-30.  External link in |work= (help)
  3. ^ "Definition of peninsula". Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 2013-03-30.  External link in |work= (help)
  4. ^ "Definition of peninsula". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2013-03-30.  External link in |work= (help)
  5. ^ Peninsula. – Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica, Retrieved 2007-07-19.
  6. ^ http://travelingluck.com/Africa/Sierra%20Leone/Northern/_2409328_Fourah+Point.html#local_map
  7. ^ National Geographic, ed. (1996). "Peninsula". Retrieved 18 January 2015. 

External links[edit]

  • The dictionary definition of peninsula at Wiktionary
  • Media related to Peninsulas at Wikimedia Commons
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