Geocaching in Spain - All you need for your Geocaching in Spain
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The most important range of maps is that produced by the National Geographic Institute (Instituto Geográfico Nacional). The M range consists of excellent maps at a scale of 1:1,000,000 and 1:2,000,000. Excellent for hanging on the wall, but of no interest to us for Geocaching. The 500 series is at a scale of 1:500,000 and comes in a series of 15 sheets or in book form. Again of little interest to geocachers. The Digital DTM Topographic Map of Spain (Mapa Militar Digital de España) is a CD set based on the 1:250,000 topographic maps plus 100m contour information in DTM files. It comes with a viewing program allowing visualization in 2 or 3 dimensions, calculation of distances, and zooming. If you understand Spanish there is a very useful page about these maps here The 200 Series is a series at 1:200,000 consisting of 48 printed maps. Also available in digital form both as maps and altitude grids. The series 50 and Series 25 are the most useful paper maps covering all of Spain at scales of 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 respectively. Their current availability is a bit patchy and you can find the current status using the inetarctive map provided by the National Geographic Institute. For any geocache, you can find out the 1:50,000 sheet number from the page for that cache on this web site. Go to the main map and find the cache of interest. Clicking on the cache will give you a page which includes the sheet number. If you want to find a downloadable version of these maps you might try looking at JoTeXe.com or search eMule for "Mapas España 50k" The 1:25,000 sheets are the same as the corresponding 1:50,000 sheets followed by a roman numeral indicating the quadrant as follows:
If you want to find a downloadable version of these 1:25,000 maps you might try looking at this blog. Clicking on the area you want on the main map will take you to a page where you can download the 1:25,000 map in ECW format. These can be used in OZIExplorer and many other mapping programs. On that same blog page there are links for downloading the maps in Garmin format as well. The mapping system is currently being revised, replacing the ED50 system by the ETRS89 system. All the sheet numbers will change and we will of course bring you the new sheet numbers on this site when the maps are available. For those of you fluent in Spanish, there is a complete technical description available. There are numerous regional maps from the various autonomous regions of Spain, many in digital form and some available free on the web. I am currently building up a complete list of these resources and if you know of a useful map that is not included here please let me know. Andalucía The Junta de Andalucía offer some excellent products. There are CDs containing the provinces of Andalucía at a scale of 1:10,000 as geo-referenced raster maps in black and white. Maps are available for download on their web site and there is also a map server but both systems seem far from user-friendly. La Rioja There is excellent availability of maps for La Rioja. The maps are downloadable as either topographical maps, relief maps or aerial photos. They are ideal for use with GPS mapping software and easy to find and download. The main index can be found on the sigCAR page (Sistema de Información Geografíca de la Comunidad Autónoma de La Rioja). More information on using maps with GPS mapping programs on your PC will be available here shortly. Catalunya The Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya, on its pages Cataluña hoja a hoja, also provides an excellent range of high-quality, freely downloadable maps. They come in Mr. Sid format. More information on using maps with GPS mapping programs on your PC will be available here shortly. Navarra The Dirección General de Obras Públicas. Gobierno de Navarra, on its pages mapas gratuitos, provides excellent freely downloadable maps of Navarra and its road system. Murcia Matt Davis has notified me of an excellent page for maps of the Murcia region on Cartomur. Others Some maps have been scanned and are in the public domain (according to www.elgps.com/mapas.html). Normally they contain an associated .map file for use with the OZIExplorer program. Those known to be available are:
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You can obtain all the maps you need, as well as GPS units and accessories, at the excellent
Mapas y Compañía in Málaga. Contact details as follows:
Mapas y Compañía C/. Compañía, 33 29008 Málaga Tel: 952 608 815 or Click Here |
