Greater Bilbao

Gran Bilbao real color image taken by NASA's Landsat satellite.

Infrared image taken July 5th 2000 by ASTER sensor on board NASA's Terra satellite. Reddish areas are vegetation zones, dark blue zones are water bodies, white zones are clouds, their shadows can be clearly seen and greenish pixels denote the densely urbanized areas beside the Nervion river. Source: Earth Observatory (NASA).

Greater Bilbao can be divided into six subcomarcas or subregions:

• The city of Bilbao itself, comprising a single municipality but containing eight districts; earlier part of the Uribe region (merindad)
• The left bank: Traditionally an industrial, port, and manufacturing zone. It includes Barakaldo, Sestao, Portugalete and Santurtzi; earlier part of a larger merindad of Enkarterri, other than Barakaldo which was part of Uribe
• The right bank: A mainly residential area, including Erandio, Leioa, and the more affluent Getxo; earlier part of Uribe
• The mining zone west of the left bank, where the main iron ore resources were located: Muskiz, Gallarta, Ortuella; earlier part of Enkarterri
• Txoriherri, wide expansion zone north of Bilbao / east of the right bank, where the international airport and the University of the Basque Country are located; earlier part of Uribe
• Hego Uribe, south-east of Bilbao including Basauri, Galdakao and Arrigorriaga; earlier part of Uribe
• Uribe-Kosta: the coastal area north of Getxo is being integrated into the metropolitan area in the recent years, with the development of low density residential areas connected by the metro; earlier part of Uribe, most of the municipalities in this zone belong to the Mungialdea comarca