List of peninsulas

A peninsula (Latin: paeninsula from paene "almost" and insula "island") is a piece of land that is bordered mostly by water but connected to mainland.[1][2][3][4] The surrounding water is usually understood to be continuous, though not necessarily named as such. 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. A river which courses through a very tight meander is also sometimes said to form a "peninsula" within the (almost closed) loop of water.

Eurasia’s largest peninsula, Europe.
Baja California Peninsula, Mexico

Presented below is a list of peninsulas.

Africa
The Horn of Africa also known as the Somali peninsula

Somali peninsula
Main article: Horn of Africa

The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in Northeast Africa that juts into the Guardafui Channel, and is the easternmost projection of the African continent. It denotes the region containing the countries of Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia.

North Africa

West Africa

Other

Antarctica

Asia

China
Main article: List of peninsulas of China

Hong Kong

Macau

Russia
The Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East

Taiwan

Turkey
Map of Anatolian Peninsula, the Asian part of Turkey

Eastern Mediterranean

Indian subcontinent and South Asia
South India (Peninsular India)

The Indian subcontinent is a peninsula, the only land feature in the world widely recognized as a subcontinent in the English language.

Japan
See also: List of peninsulas of Japan

Kyūshū

Honshū

Hokkaido

Kazakhstan

Korea
Main article: Korean Peninsula
Korean Peninsula

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

Persian Gulf
  • Arabian Peninsula; Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Oman
  • Qatar
  • Al-Faw Peninsula, Iraq
  • Musandam Peninsula; Oman, United Arab Emirates

Indochina

Indonesia

Malaysia

Philippines

Singapore

Vietnam

Europe

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 and largest component peninsulas being the Scandinavian, Iberian, Balkan and Italian peninsulas.

Balkan Peninsula
The Balkan Peninsula, as defined by the Soča–Vipava–Krka–Sava–Danube border.

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

France

Iberian Peninsula
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

Italy
Satellite view of the Italian Peninsula

Malta

Russia

Scandinavia
Main articles: Scandinavia, Scandinavian Peninsula, Jutland, and Fennoscandia

Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties. The term Scandinavia in local usage covers the three kingdoms of Denmark, located on the Jutland Peninsula, and Norway and Sweden, located the on the Scandinavian Peninsula.[8] In English usage, Scandinavia also sometimes refers to the Scandinavian Peninsula, or to the broader region including Finland and Iceland, which is always known locally as the Nordic countries.[9][10]

The Scandinavian Peninsula, along with the islands, encompasses present-day Sweden, Norway, and the northwestern area of Finland.

Fennoscandia or the Fennoscandian Peninsula is the geographical peninsula comprising the Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland, Karelia, and the Kola Peninsula (Russia).

Fennoscandia including the Scandinavian Peninsula and Kola Peninsula

Norway

Sweden

Denmark

Finland

Estonia
Main article: List of peninsulas of Estonia

Turkey

Ukraine

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

Scotland

Wales

Northern Ireland

Channel Islands

Isle of Man

Other peninsulas in Europe
A small peninsula in Croatia
Au peninsula, Lake Zürich, Switzerland

North America

Belize

Canada

British Columbia

New Brunswick
Newfoundland

Northwest Territories

Nova Scotia

Nunavut
Baffin Island

Ontario

Quebec

Dominican Republic

Puerto Rico

Cuba

St. Lucia
  • Vigie Peninsula, St Lucia

Costa Rica

Greenland

Mexico
The Yucatán Peninsula

Panama

Alaska

California

Florida
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
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
Cape Cod, a peninsula of Massachusetts

Michigan
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

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

Utah
  • 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

Vermont
  • Alburgh, Vermont, is on the Alburgh Tongue, a peninsula extending from Quebec, Canada into Lake Champlain

Virginia

Washington

Other states

South America

Southern Cone
Satellite images of the Southern Cone extending off South America month by month

The Southern Cone, like Europe, is sometimes considered to be a large peninsula.[11] Geographically, the peninsula encompasses most of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Southern Brazil and the southernmost portion of Paraguay, which makes it one of the largest peninsulas in the world. Like the Indian Peninsula, the Southern Cone is sometimes considered to be a subcontinent.[12]

Other peninsulas in South America

Oceania

Australia
A beach on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria

Papua New Guinea

New Zealand
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

See also

References
  1. Word Histories and Mysteries: From Abracadabra to Zeus. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2004. p. 216. ISBN 978-0547350271. OCLC 55746553.
  2. "pen·in·su·la". American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  3. "Definition of peninsula". Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  4. "Definition of peninsula". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  5. "List of peninsulas". Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  6. http://travelingluck.com/Africa/Sierra%20Leone/Northern/_2409328_Fourah+Point.html#local_map
  7. National Geographic, ed. (1996). "Peninsula". Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  8. John Harrison, Michael Hoyler, Megaregions: Globalization's New Urban Form? (p. 152), Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015
  9. "Definition of Scandinavia in English". Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved 23 December 2016. A large peninsula in north-western Europe, occupied by Norway and Sweden … A cultural region consisting of the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and sometimes also of Iceland, Finland, and the Faroe Islands
  10. "Facts about the Nordic region". Nordic Council of Ministers & Nordic Council. 1 October 2007. Archived from the original on 8 February 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2014. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland work together in the official Nordic co-operation.
  11. Podetti, J. Ramiro (2011). "La visión geopolítica de Artigas": 3. Retrieved 10 November 2020. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. Baldwin, James A. (2014), "Continents", in R.W. McColl (ed.), Encyclopedia of World Geography, Infobase Publishing, p. 215, ISBN 978-0-8160-7229-3
  • The dictionary definition of peninsula at Wiktionary
  • Media related to Peninsulas at Wikimedia Commons
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