The Guadalete River is located almost entirely in the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

Province of Cádiz Cádiz is a Provinces of Spain, province of southern Spain, in the southwestern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is the southernmost part of mainland Spain, as well as the southernmost part of conti ...

, rising in the

Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park The Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park ( es, Parque natural de la Sierra de Grazalema) is a natural park (Spain), natural park in the northeastern part of the province of Cádiz in southern Spain. The park encompasses, within its , a complex of mount ...

at an elevation of about , and running for into the

Bay of Cádiz The Bay of Cádiz is a body of water in the province of Cádiz, Spain, adjacent to the southwestern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The Bay of Cádiz adjoins the Gulf of Cádiz, a larger body of water which is in the same area but further offsho ...

El Puerto de Santa Maria EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

, north of the city of

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

. The river's name comes from the Arabic phrase ''وادي لكة'' (Wadi lakath) meaning "River of Forgetfulness".

Course

From its source in the Sierra de Grazalema, the Guadalete passes: *

Grazalema Grazalema is a village located in the northeastern part of the province of Cádiz, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Situated in the foothills of the Sierra del Pinar mountain range (Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park), Grazalema ...

*The Reservoir (Embalse) of Zahara *Puerto Solano *Briefly enters

Seville province The Province of Seville ( es, Sevilla) is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the provinces of Málaga, Cádiz in the south, Huelva in the west, Badajoz in the north and C ...

and reenters

Cádiz province Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, w ...

Villamartín Villamartín is a city located in the province of Cádiz, Spain. According to the 2005 census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is u ...

*The Reservoir (Embalse) of Bornos *The Reservoir (Embalse) of Arcos *

Arcos de la Frontera Arcos de la Frontera () is a town and municipality in the Sierra de Cádiz comarca, province of Cádiz, in Andalusia, Spain. It is located on the northern, western and southern banks of the Guadalete river, which flows around three sides of the c ...

*La Barca de la Florida *Lomopardo and El Portal (near

Jerez de la Frontera Jerez de la Frontera (), or simply Jerez (), is a Spanish city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cádiz Mountains. , the ...

) It then flows into the

, in the city of

El Puerto de Santa María EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

. There are several dams with reservoirs along its course, including the Embalse de Zahara and the Embalse de Bornos. The " Sierra Greenway", a bicycle path reclaimed from an abandoned railroad line, also passes along the river. The largest tributaries of the Guadalete are the Guadalporcún, and the Majaceite, which joins it at Junta de los Ríos downstream from

.El río Guadalete
at riosycuencas.com (Spanish)

Historic importance

The river was once the frontier between

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

and

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

, receiving the sobriquet ''Río de los Muertos'' (river of the dead). The river may have been the location of the

Battle of Guadalete The Battle of Guadalete was the first major battle of the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, fought in 711 at an unidentified location in what is now southern Spain between the Christian Visigoths under their king, Roderic, and the invading forces of t ...

in 711, at which the

Visigothic The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kno ...

army was defeated by an invading Muslim army, leading to the conquest of Iberia by the

Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...

References

External links

Rivers of Spain Rivers of Andalusia Geography of the Province of Cádiz {{Spain-river-stub

Course

Historic importance

See also

References

External links