Desde la cima vimos casi novecientos metros de valle entre la sierra y la costa.

Desde means from or starting from, and la cima means the summit / the top. So desde la cima means from the top or from the summit.

It sets the viewpoint first: the speaker is telling us where they were when they saw the valley.

You could also say:

• Vimos casi novecientos metros de valle desde la cima.

That is also correct, but starting with desde la cima gives the setting first and sounds very natural.

In Spanish, articles are used more often than in English. So where English might say from the top, Spanish normally says desde la cima, with the definite article.

This is very common with places and landscape features:

• la costa = the coast
• la playa = the beach
• la montaña = the mountain

Leaving out la here would sound incomplete.

Vimos is the pretérito form of ver for nosotros: we saw.

The sentence is describing a completed action in the past: at that moment, from the summit, we saw that stretch of valley.

Forms:

• veíamos = we were seeing / we used to see
• vimos = we saw

Here, vimos fits better because it presents the sight as a finished event, not as an ongoing background description.

In Spanish, ver usually means to see, while mirar means to look at.

So:

• vimos = we saw
• miramos = we looked at

In this sentence, the idea is about what came into view, so ver is the natural verb. If you used miramos, the focus would be more on the act of directing your eyes toward it.

It means almost nine hundred metres.

• casi = almost
• novecientos = nine hundred
• metros = metres

So the speaker is estimating the distance or extent: not quite 900 metres, but close.

Because 900 in Spanish is irregular: novecientos.

Compare:

• doscientos = 200
• trescientos = 300
• seiscientos = 600
• novecientos = 900

It does not come directly from nueve in a fully predictable way, so it is simply a form you need to learn.

Metros de valle means something like metres of valley or metres’ worth of valley.

Spanish often uses de after a measure to specify what is being measured:

• dos kilómetros de playa = two kilometres of beach
• cien metros de carretera = one hundred metres of road
• tres hectáreas de bosque = three hectares of forest

So novecientos metros de valle means that the visible stretch or width/extent being referred to is valley.

Because it refers to valley as a continuous stretch or area, not to several separate valleys.

So:

• novecientos metros de valle = nine hundred metres of valley

This is similar to English expressions like:

• three miles of desert
• two kilometres of coastline

You are measuring an expanse, so the singular is natural.

It describes where that stretch of valley is located: between the mountains and the coast.

So the structure is basically:

• Desde la cima = from the summit
• vimos = we saw
• casi novecientos metros de valle = almost nine hundred metres of valley
• entre la sierra y la costa = between the mountain range and the coast

In other words, they saw a stretch of valley lying between those two geographical features.

Here sierra means mountain range or mountain area, not saw.

That is an important point because sierra can also mean saw as a tool, but in geography it means a range of mountains.

In Spain, this word is very common in place names and descriptions:

• la sierra
• Sierra Nevada
• la sierra de Madrid

So in this sentence, la sierra means the mountainous area.

Because Spanish normally uses the definite article with these nouns when speaking about known or identifiable geographical features.

So:

• la sierra = the mountain range / the mountains
• la costa = the coast

English sometimes drops articles in expressions where Spanish keeps them, but here Spanish strongly prefers them.

Yes, that is a very natural translation.

Although sierra is singular in form, it often refers to a mountainous region or range, so in English the mountains may sound more natural than the mountain range, depending on context.

Possible translations:

• between the mountain range and the coast
• between the mountains and the coast

Both can work.

The word order is natural. Spanish is flexible, and this sentence is perfectly normal.

Starting with Desde la cima highlights the point of view. If you changed the order, you could also say:

• Vimos casi novecientos metros de valle entre la sierra y la costa desde la cima.

That is grammatical, but the original sounds smoother because the location of the observer is given first.

A comma is not necessary here. Short introductory phrases often appear without a comma in Spanish:

• Desde casa lo vi.
• Por la mañana salimos temprano.

You might sometimes see a comma for style or emphasis, but in a normal sentence like this, no comma is needed.

Yes, often it could.

• cima = top, summit
• cumbre = summit, peak

Both are possible in mountain contexts. Cumbre can sound a little more formal or literary in some cases, while cima is very common and straightforward.

So:

• Desde la cima...
• Desde la cumbre...

Both are correct, though the exact nuance may vary a little by context and style.

A natural English version might be:

• From the top, we could see almost nine hundred metres of valley between the mountains and the coast.

This is slightly freer than a word-for-word translation, but it sounds natural. In Spanish, vimos is simply we saw, but in English we could see often sounds more idiomatic when describing a view from a place.