Guadalete River
Course
From its source in the Sierra de Grazalema, the Guadalete passes:
- Grazalema
- The Reservoir (Embalse) of Zahara
- Puerto Serrano
- Briefly enters Seville province and reenters Cádiz province
- Villamartín
- The Reservoir (Embalse) of Bornos
- The Reservoir (Embalse) of Arcos
- Arcos de la Frontera
- La Barca de la Florida
- Lomopardo and El Portal (near Jerez de la Frontera)
It then flows into the Bay of Cádiz in El Puerto de Santa María.
There are several dams with reservoirs along its course, including the Embalse de Zahara and the Embalse de Bornos. The "Sierra Greenway", a 36-kilometre (22 mi) bicycle path reclaimed from an abandoned railroad line, also passes along the river.
The largest tributaries of the Guadalete are the Guadalporcún, and the Majaceite, which joins it at Junta de los Ríos downstream from Arcos de la Frontera.
History
The river may have been the location of the Battle of Guadalete in 711, at which the Visigothic army was defeated by an invading Muslim army, leading to the conquest of Iberia by the Umayyad Caliphate. The river was once the frontier between Christian and Moorish Iberia, receiving the sobriquet Río de los Muertos (river of the dead).
See also
References
- ^ Rutas Rurales en Cádiz Archived 2010-03-28 at the Wayback Machine at hotelesandalucia.es (Spanish)
- ^ Instituto Geográfico Nacional, 1:200000 topographic map series, Cadiz province, retrieved from http://detopografia.blogspot.com/p/mapas-de-espana-descarga.html
- ^ Embalse de Zahara at Confederación Hidrográfica del Guadalquivir (Spanish)
- ^ El río Guadalete Archived 2010-07-03 at the Wayback Machine at riosycuencas.com (Spanish)
External links
36°45′08″N 05°47′36″W / 36.75222°N 5.79333°W