Tagus

For the ancient Thessalian title, see Tagus

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007)

Tagus
Tajo, Tejo
River
View of Tagus River in Toledo, Spain
Countries	Spain, Portugal
Tributaries
- left	Guadiela, Algodor, Gévalo, Ibor, Almonte, Salor, Sever, Sorraia
- right	Jarama, Guadarrama, Alberche, Tiétar, Zêzere
Source	Fuente de García
- location	Albarracín Mountains, Teruel, Spain
- elevation	1,593 m (5,226 ft)
Mouth	Stuary of the Tagus
- location	Atlantic Ocean at Lisbon, Portugal
- elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Length	1,038 km (645 mi)
Basin	80,100 km2 (30,927 sq mi)
Discharge
- average	500 m3/s (17,657 cu ft/s)
Path of the Tagus through the Iberian Peninsula
Wikimedia Commons: Tagus
Website: Confederación Hidrográfica del Tajo

The Tagus (Spanish Tajo, Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtaxo]; Portuguese Tejo, Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈtɛʒʊ]; Latin Tagus; Ancient Greek Τάγος Tagos) is the longest river on the Iberian Peninsula. It measures 1,038 kilometers in length, 716 km of which are in Spain, 47 km as border between Portugal and Spain and the remaining 275 km in Portugal, where it empties into the Atlantic at Lisbon. It drains an area of 80,100 km² (the second largest in the Iberian peninsula after the Douro). The Tagus is highly utilized for most of its course. Several dams and diversions supply drinking water to most of central Spain, including Madrid, and Portugal, while dozens of hydroelectric stations create power. Between dams it follows a very constricted course, but after Almourol it enters a vast alluvial valley prone to flooding. Its mouth is a large estuary forming the best harbor in Europe, on which the port city of Lisbon is situated.

The source of the Tagus is the Fuente de García, in the Albarracín mountains. All its major tributaries enter the Tagus from the right (north) bank. The main cities it passes through are Aranjuez, Toledo and Talavera de la Reina in Spain, and Abrantes, Santarém, Almada and Lisbon in Portugal.

Course of the Tagus

The Tagus in Spain

The first notable town on the Tagus is Sacedón. Below Aranjuez it receives the combined flow of the Henares and the Tajuña. Below Toledo it receives the Guadarrama river. Above Talavera de la Reina it receives the Alberche. 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 Embalse de Alcántara into which flow the Alagón at the lower end.

The Tagus in Portugal

After the stretch where the Tagus forms the border, it enters Portugal, passing by Vila Velha de Ródão, Abrantes, Constância, Entroncamento, Santarém and Vila Franca de Xira at the head of the long narrow estuary, which has Lisbon at its mouth. There is the largest bridge across the river, the Vasco da Gama Bridge (in Lisbon) with a total length of 17.2 km. It is also the longest bridge in Europe. The Portuguese regions of Alentejo and Ribatejo take their names from the river. Alentejo, from Além-Tejo ("beyond the Tagus"), and Ribatejo, from Arriba-Tejo (on the banks of the Tagus). There is a canal and aqueduct between the Tagus and the Segura river.

Lisbon viewed across the Tagus

Geology

Map of the Tagus river Basin

The lower Tagus is on a fault line. Slippage along it has caused numerous earthquakes, the major ones being those of 1309, 1531 and 1755.^[1]

History

The Pepper Wreck is the name of a shipwreck located and excavated at the mouth of the Tagus River between 1996 and 2001.

The river also had strategic value to the Spanish and Portuguese empires, as it guarded the approach to Lisbon. For example, in 1587, Sir Francis Drake briefly approached the river after his successful raid at Cadiz.^[2]

The Tagus in song and story

Vasco da Gama Bridge across the Tagus

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...."^[3]

Richard Crashaw's poem "Saint Mary Magdalene, or the Weeper" refers to the "Golden" Tagus as wanting Mary Magdalene's silver tears. In classical poetry the Tagus was famous for its gold-bearing sands (Catullus 29.19, Ovid, Amores, 1.15.34, etc.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tagus River

• 1755 Lisbon earthquake

Notes

1. ^ Hobbs, William Herbert (1907). Earthquakes: An Introduction to Seismic Geology. NewYork: D. Appleton and Company. pp. 142–144.  Downloadable Google Books
2. ^ Garrett Mattingly, The Armada, 118-119
3. ^ Pessoa, Fernando; Richard Zenith, Translator (1999). Fernando Pessoa and Co.: Selected Poems. Grove Press. pp. 55. ISBN 0802136273, 9780802136275. 

Coordinates: 40°19′11″N 1°41′51″W / 40.31972°N 1.6975°W / 40.31972; -1.6975