Tagus

The Tagus through Toledo, Spain

The Tagus (Spanish, [ taxonomic ] ) and Tagus (Portuguese, [ tɛʒʊ ] ) is a run of 1007 km, the longest river of the Iberian peninsula in Spain and Portugal.

Catchment area

That the Tagus basin covers 80,600 km ², of which ( 55,810 km ² ) ( 24,790 km ² ) account for 69.2 % of the Spanish regions of Extremadura, Madrid, Aragon, Castile -La Mancha and 30.8 % in Portugal. In the Spanish part lived in 2005 about 6.093 million people in the Portuguese part of almost 3.5 million. In the Iberian Peninsula have only the Duero with 97,290 km ² and the Ebro with 85,362 km ² large catchment areas.

Course

The Tagus rises in about 1600 meters above sea level at the source of Fuente de García in the mountains of Montes Universal in eastern Spain ( province of Teruel ). To the west, it flows through the Iberian peninsula - about 40 km south past Madrid - the Spanish cities of Aranjuez, Toledo, Talavera de la Reina and Alcántara and by the Portuguese city of Santarém. Finally, it flows into the Atlantic at Lisbon.

Rights tributaries

• Jarama, 190 km long, average amount of 16 to 20 m³ / s In him the Lozoya, Manzanares, Guadalix, Henares and the Tajuña lead.
• Guadarrama, 132 km in length. In him the Aulencia opens.
• Alberche, 177 km long, average quantity of 14.7 m³ / sec.
• Tiétar 150 km in length.
• Alagon, 205 km in length. He comes from the Sierra de Herreros. In him culminate Arrago and Jerte.
• Zêzere, 215 km long, average quantity of 1000 m³ / s
• Trancão, 23 km in length.

Left tributaries

• Guadiela, 115 km in length. ( Note reservoir behind the Embalse de Buendía )
• Algodor, from the mountains near Toldeo with a length of 55 km.
• Ibor, 60 km in length.
• Almonte, 97 km in length.
• Salor at 120 km length of the Sierra de Montánchez down. It ends at Alcántara.

Buildings and monuments

The largest bridge over the river is the Vasco da Gama Bridge (Ponte Vasco da Gama ) with a total length of 17.2 km. It is the longest bridge in Europe. Far older the Roman Puente de Alcántara and the medieval Puente de San Martín in Toledo. More Tagus bridges are the Spanish Puente de Alconétar and in Portugal the bridges Ponte Salgueiro Maia, Ponte da Lezíria and Ponte 25 de Abril. In Lisbon, to be built between the Vasco da Gama Bridge and the Bridge of April 25, a third Tejoüberquerung.

Economy

For energy the Tajo is dammed at several locations to reservoirs (eg Alcántara reservoir and Valdecañas reservoir).

History

In ancient times the river was called the Tagus. Historically significant were armed conflicts that have been fought in 218 BC on the banks of the Tagus between Hannibal and the Carpe Spartans during the Second Punic War.