The Balearic Islands' smallest island
While the four Balearic islands cover a total area of almost 5,000 km², Formentera accounts for just over 1.5% of the total. With its 83.2 km² and 69 km of coastline, it is the smallest inhabited island in the archipelago. Formentera's shape resembles Guadeloupe!
Equidistant from Algiers and Barcelona
Formentera is the westernmost of the Mediterranean islands (along with Ibiza). It lies just under a hundred kilometers off the coast of Valencia, on the peninsula. From the Cap de Barberia, on a clear day, you can make out the outline of the island on the horizon. If you're on the northern side of the island, you'll also be able to make out the silhouette of Ibiza with ease: the two Pityuse islands are separated only by a 3 km strait, the Strait of Es Freus. Formentera is also quite close to the African continent: it is equidistant from Algiers and Barcelona, a much shorter distance than that separating it from Madrid.
Low relief
The island is also the flattest and driest of the four. It is made up of two distinct parts, one very flat to the west, and the other mountainous to the east, dominated by the 192-meter-high Puig La Mola (the island's highest peak). Formentera's two extremities are linked by a narrow strip of land bordered by beaches: Migjorn to the south, Llevant to the north. Two stretches of saltwater connected to the sea, Estany des Peix and Estany Pudent, extend from the island's north coast. The Es Trucadors peninsula faces the island of S'Espalmador, from which it is separated by a sandy strip of shallow water subject to strong sea currents. To the south of the island, Cap de Barbaria forms an arid, semi-desert promontory dominated by a lighthouse serving as a landmark for ships entering the Mediterranean Sea via the Strait of Gibraltar, while to the east, the La Mola plateau reveals windswept rural landscapes ending in steep cliffs. The east coast is also indented with several points, from Punta de sa Creu in the north to Punta Roja in the south.
Around 60 million years ago
Geologically, Formentera is particularly rich. The island is home to almost every type of rock found on the Iberian Peninsula, including Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Gibraltar and the Balearic Islands. Its history dates back some 6 million years, when Formentera and Ibiza formed a single mountain emerging 4,000 metres beneath the sea. This underwater geological past explains the essentially sedimentary composition of the island's rocks, which also influences its flora: the island's plants draw their nutrients from the abundant calcium in the soil.
Formentera is linked to Ibiza by a series of rocks and islets that bear witness to their shared geological history. Today, these relics are part of the Ses Salines nature park, famous for its rich seabed, where posidonia meadows thrive. This flowering plant migrated from the land to the ocean almost 100 million years ago, adding to the ecological diversity of the Balearic Islands.
