The Sil is a

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

in León (

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

) and Galicia,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, a tributary of the Miño. Its total length is . The source of the Sil is in the

Cantabrian Mountains The Cantabrian Mountains or Cantabrian Range () are one of the main systems of mountain ranges in Spain. They stretch for over 300 km (180 miles) across northern Spain, from the western limit of the Pyrenees to the Galician Massif ...

, in La Cueta part of the Leonese municipality of Cabrillanes. It flows through the provinces of León and

Ourense Ourense (; ) is a city and the capital of the province of province of Ourense, Ourense, located in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, northwestern Spain. It is on the Camino Sanabrés path o ...

. The largest city on the Sil is

Ponferrada Ponferrada () is a city of Spain, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Ponferrada, the second most populated municipality of the Province of León, is also the capital city of El Bierzo, the only Comarcas of Spain, ''comarca'' ...

(León). The Sil flows into the Miño upstream from

Mouth

The river joins the Miño river in Os Peares, in the

province of Ourense Ourense (; ) is a province of Spain, in the southeastern part of the autonomous community of Galicia. It is bordered by the provinces of Pontevedra to the west, Lugo to the north, León and Zamora, (which both belong to Castile and León) to ...

. Generally, the hierarchy between rivers is performed by taking into account which junction has more volume and length. In this case, as with the Esla and Pisuerga with the Duero, the Sil has flows larger than the Miño at the junction. There is a saying that goes, "The Miño has the fame, but the Sil gives it water" (in Spanish, ''El Miño lleva la fama y el Sil le da el agua''). The Sil river also surpasses the Miño in length by about .

Course

The Sil runs through the León districts of Babia, Laciana,

El Bierzo El Bierzo (; or ''El Bierzu''; ) is a '' comarca'' in the province of León, Spain. Its capital is the town of Ponferrada. Other major towns are Bembibre and Villafranca del Bierzo, the historical capital. The territory of El Bierzo inclu ...

and La Cabrera, and Ourense Valdeorras, among other locations across Villablino,

, O Barco de Valdeorras, A Rúa, Quiroga and Ribas de Sil.

Tributaries

* Left bank: Valseco, Boeza, Oza, Cabrera, Bibei, Navea and Mao. * Right bank: Caboalles, Valdeprado, Barredos, Cúa, Burbia, Selmo, Soldón, Lor and Cabe.

Gold deposits

The river has been a rich source of

alluvial Alluvium (, ) 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. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

gold, and was most extensively exploited during the Roman period, following the conquest of north-west Spain by

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

in 25 BC. The upper reaches of the river possessed large placer deposits, and the region around

Las Médulas Las Médulas () is a historic gold-mining site near the town of Ponferrada in the comarca of El Bierzo (León (province), province of León, Castile and León, Spain). It was the most important gold gold mining, mine, as well as the largest open ...

yielded large amounts of gold. It was extracted using

hydraulic mining Hydraulic mining is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment.Paul W. Thrush, ''A Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms'', US Bureau of Mines, 1968, p.560. In the placer mining of ...

, involving the building of numerous aqueducts to expose and wash the alluvial formations.

Etymology

According to Pokorny and to E. Bascuas, "Sil" would belong to the

old European hydronymy Old European () is the term used by Hans Krahe (1964) for the language of the oldest reconstructed stratum of European hydronymy (river names) in Central and Western Europe.Hans Krahe, ''Unsere ältesten Flussnamen'', Wiesbaden Edition Otto Harr ...

, derived from the Indoeuropean root ''*sei-'' 'drip, run, humid'.Cf. p. 537 of "La Hidronimia de Galicia: tres estratos ..". http://www.mondonedoferrol.org/estudios-mindonienses/MINDONIENSES%2024%20 rotegidopdf

References