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 *Fred Below ...

) 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, def ...

. 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 ...

, 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's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

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. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...

. 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, ...

, Portugal it has a wide

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. ...

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 H ...

, 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 popu ...

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 f ...

. 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 ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

. The main cities the rivers passes through consecutively are

Aranjuez Aranjuez () is a city and municipality of Spain, part of the Community of Madrid. Located in the southern end of the region, the main urban nucleus lies on the left bank of Tagus, a bit upstream the discharge of the Jarama. , the municipality h ...

, Toledo and Talavera de la Reina in Spain, and Abrantes, Santarém,

Almada Almada () is a city and a municipality in Portugal, located on the southern margin of the Tagus River, on the opposite side of the river from Lisbon. The two cities are connected by the 25 de Abril Bridge. The population in 2011 was 174,030, in ...

and

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), and ...

, lies in the upper

Course

In Spain

The first notable city on the Tagus is Sacedón. Below

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 ...

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 Toledo it receives the Guadarrama River. 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 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 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 Cr ...

– the second longest bridge in Europe, with a total length of – and the 25 de Abril Bridge. 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 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

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, fr ...

s, the major ones being those of 1309, 1531 and 1755.

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

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 ...

(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 poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His ...

29.19;

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

'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 life ...

'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