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

below Below may refer to: *Earth *Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor *Bottom (disambiguation) Bottom may refer to: Anatomy and sex * Bottom (BDSM), the partner in a BDSM who takes the passive, receiving, or obedient role, to that of the top or ...

) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near

Teruel Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel Province. It has a population of 35,675 in 2014 making it the least populated provincial capital in the country. It is noted for its harsh climate, with a ...

, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections, to empty into the Atlantic Ocean in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

. Its drainage basin 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, and Portuguese capital, Lisbon. The source is specifically: in political geography, at the Fuente de García in the

Frías de Albarracín Frías de Albarracín is a municipality in the province of Teruel, Sierra de Albarracín Comarca, Aragon, Spain. The town is located in the Montes Universales area, Sistema Ibérico. According to the 2013 census (INE), the municipality has a pop ...

municipality; in physical geography, within the notably high range, the Sistema Ibérico (Iberian System), of the

Sierra de Albarracín Comarca Sierra de Albarracín Comarca is a comarca in the Province of Teruel, Aragon region, northeastern Spain. It is located in mountain ranges of the Sistema Ibérico (Iberian System). Geography The Comarca de la Sierra de Albarracín is in an area ...

. 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. 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

in Portugal. The Spanish capital, Madrid, lies in the upper drainage basin.

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 S ...

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 The Alberche is a river in the provinces of Ávila, Madrid and Toledo, central Spain. It begins its course at 1,800 m in Fuente Alberche, San Martín de la Vega del Alberche municipal term, Ávila Province. It forms the natural division between ...

. At

Valdeverdeja Valdeverdeja is a municipality located in the Toledo (province), province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It belongs to the Campana de Oropesa region and has 647 inhabitants according to the 2006 census (Instituto Nacional de Estadística ( ...

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 Tagus-Segura Water Transfer (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Trasvase Tajo-Segura'') is one of the largest works of hydraulic engineering ever produced in Spain. Water from the Tagus River is channeled through this Interbasin transfer, transf ...

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 at the head of the long narrow estuary, which has

at its mouth. The estuary is protected by the

Tagus Estuary Natural Reserve Tagus Estuary Natural Reserve ( pt, Reserva Natural do Estuário do Tejo) is a natural reserve in Portugal. It is one of the 30 areas which are officially under protection in the country. The estuary of the Tagus River is the largest wetland in th ...

. 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 Cri ...

– the second longest bridge in Europe, with a total length of – and the

25 de Abril Bridge The 25 de Abril Bridge ( pt, Ponte 25 de Abril, 25th of April Bridge, ) is a suspension bridge connecting the city of Lisbon, capital of Portugal, to the municipality of Almada on the left (south) bank of the Tagus river. It has a total len ...

. The

Port of Lisbon The Port of Lisbon (Portuguese: ''Porto de Lisboa'') is the third-largest port in Portugal, mainly on the north sides of the Tagus's large natural harbour that opens west, through a short strait, onto the Atlantic Ocean. Each part lies against cen ...

, 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 Alent ...

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 as (''Tágos'').

Geology

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

. In 1909, the region experienced a strong and damaging earthquake.

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, 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 Richard Crashaw (c. 1613 – 21 August 1649) was an English poet, teacher, High Church Anglican cleric and Roman Catholic convert, who was one of the major metaphysical poets in 17th-century English literature. Crashaw was the son of a famous A ...

(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 29.19; Ovid's ''Amores'' 1.15.34; Juvenal'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