The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see

below Below may refer to: *Earth * Ground (disambiguation) * Soil * Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) * Less than *Temperatures below freezing * Hell or underworld People with the surname * Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general * Fr ...

) is the longest river in the

Iberian Peninsula 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 ...

. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections, to empty into the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...

in Lisbon. Its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

covers – exceeded in the peninsula only by the Douro. The river is highly used. Several dams and diversions supply drinking water to key population centres of central Spain and Portugal; dozens of hydroelectric stations create power. Between dams it follows a very constricted course, but after

Almourol Almourol is an islet in the Tagus river, in the civil parish of Praia do Ribatejo, Center Region, Portugal. The small island lies in the middle of the Tagus, a few meters below its confluence with the Zêzere River. The castle of Almourol, a ...

, Portugal it has a wide alluvial valley, prone to flooding. Its mouth is a large estuary culminating at the major

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...

, and Portuguese capital, Lisbon. The source is specifically: in political geography, at the Fuente de García in the Frías de Albarracín municipality; in physical geography, within the notably high range, the Sistema Ibérico (Iberian System), of the Sierra de Albarracín Comarca. All the major tributaries are right bank, which is locally to the north. The river flows in Spain, along the two countries' border and in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

. The main cities the rivers passes through consecutively are Aranjuez,

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Orur ...

and Talavera de la Reina in Spain, and Abrantes, Santarém, Almada and Lisbon in Portugal. The Spanish capital,

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

, lies in the upper

Course

In Spain

The first notable city on the Tagus is Sacedón. Below Aranjuez it receives the combined flow of the Jarama,

Henares The Henares () is a river in Spain, tributary of the Jarama. It has its source in the Sierra Ministra, in the village of Horna, near Sigüenza, in the province of Guadalajara. Its tributaries are the Torote, the Sorbe, the Cañamares, the Sa ...

Algodor Algodor is a small settlement between Toledo and Aranjuez, Spain. The locality is within the municipal limits of Aranjuez and is in the Community of Madrid. It has a population of 14, but in its heyday in the 1920s there were more inhabitants a ...

and Tajuña. Below

it receives the

Guadarrama River The Guadarrama is a river in Spain. A tributary of the Tagus, the longest river on the Iberian Peninsula, Guadarrama has its source in the Siete Picos, part of the Sierra de Guadarrama, in the Community of Madrid, in the central part of the coun ...

. Above Talavera de la Reina it receives the Alberche. At

Valdeverdeja Valdeverdeja is a municipality located in the province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It belongs to the Campana de Oropesa region and has 647 inhabitants according to the 2006 census ( INE). The municipal area is 67 km², and it has a p ...

is the upper end of the long upper reservoir, the ''Embalse de Valdecañas'', beyond which are the '' Embalse de Torrejon'', into which flow the Tiétar, and the lower reservoir, the Alcántara Dam into which flows the Alagón at the lower end. A canal and aqueduct are between the Tagus and the Segura for the Tagus-Segura Water Transfer. The Sanctuary of Christ the King and the Tagus River

The Sanctuary of Christ the King and the Tagus River

In Portugal

After forming the border it enters Portugal, passing

Vila Velha de Ródão Vila Velha de Ródão () is a municipality in the district of Castelo Branco in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 3,521,Abrantes, Constância, Entroncamento, Santarém and

Vila Franca de Xira Vila Franca de Xira () is a city and municipality in the Lisbon District in Portugal. The population in 2021 was 137,659, in an area of 318.19 km2. Situated on both banks of the Tagus River, 32 km north-east of the Portuguese capital ...

at the head of the long narrow estuary, which has Lisbon at its mouth. The estuary is protected by the Tagus Estuary Natural Reserve. Two bridges span the river at Lisbon: the

Vasco da Gama Bridge The Vasco da Gama Bridge ( pt, Ponte Vasco da Gama; ) is a cable-stayed bridge flanked by viaducts that spans the Tagus River in Parque das Nações in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. It is the second longest bridge in Europe, after the C ...

– the second longest bridge in Europe, with a total length of – and the 25 de Abril Bridge. The Port of Lisbon, straddling its mouth, is one of Europe's busiest. The Portuguese

Alentejo Alentejo ( , ) is a geographical, historical, and cultural region of south–central and southern Portugal. In Portuguese, its name means "beyond () the Tagus river" (''Tejo''). Alentejo includes the regions of Alto Alentejo and Baixo Alen ...

region and the former Ribatejo Province take their names from the river: Alentejo, from ''além Tejo'' ("beyond the Tejo") and Ribatejo probably from ''arriba Tejo'' (an archaic phrase for "upper Tejo"). However, the Spanish word means "riverside", or "riviera", implying that Ribatejo can also mean very generically "the side of Tejo". Many instances of towns in Spain have this prefix.

Name

The river's Latin name is ''Tagus''. While the etymology is unclear, the most probable etymological origin for the hydronym ''Tagus'' is Indo-European *(s)tag- ('to drip'). It is known under different names in the languages of Iberia: , , gl, Río Texo, , pt, Tejo, es, Tajo. It is known in Italian as and

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

as (''Tágos'').

Geology

The lower Tagus is on a fault line. Slippage along it has caused numerous

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

s, the major ones being those of 1309,

1531 Year 1531 ( MDXXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–June * January 26 – Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake, in which thousands die. * Fe ...

and

1755 Events January–March * January 23 (O. S. January 12, Tatiana Day, nowadays celebrated on January 25) – Moscow University is established. * February 13 – The kingdom of Mataram on Java is divided in two, creating the ...

History

The Pepper Wreck, properly the wreck of the ''Nossa Senhora dos Mártires'', is a shipwreck located and excavated at the mouth of the Tagus between 1996 and 2001. The river had strategic value to the Spanish and Portuguese empires, as it guarded the approach to Lisbon. In 1909, the region experienced a strong and damaging

In popular culture

A major river, the Tagus is brought to mind in the songs and stories of the Portuguese. A popular fado song in Lisbon notes that, while people get older, the Tagus remains young (“My hair getting white, the Tagus is always young”). The author,

Fernando Pessoa Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher, and philosopher, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century an ...

, wrote a poem that begins:

The Tagus is more beautiful than the river that flows through my village.
But the Tagus is not more beautiful than the river that flows through my village...

Richard Crashaw (died 1649) wrote a poem "Saint Mary Magdalene, or the Weeper". This refers to the "Golden" Tagus as wanting Mary Magdalene's silver tears. In classical poetry, the Tagus was famous for its gold-bearing sands (the catalogued works of:

Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; 84 - 54 BCE), often referred to simply as Catullus (, ), was a Latin poetry, Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical h ...

29.19;

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the ...

's ''Amores'' 1.15.34;

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the '' Satires''. The details of Juvenal's lif ...

's ''Satires'' 3.55; and others).

References

{{Authority control Rivers of Spain Rivers of Portugal International rivers of Europe Rivers of Castilla–La Mancha Rivers of Extremadura Rivers of the Community of Madrid Geography of Lisbon Belém (Lisbon) Portugal–Spain border