Tagus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tagus | |
|---|---|
| Spanish: Tajo, Portuguese: Tejo | |
 View over the Tagus River from Almourol Castle in Portugal
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| Countries | Spain, Portugal |
| Length | 1,038 km (645 mi) |
| Watershed | 80,100 km² (30,927 mi²) |
| Source | Fuente de García |
| - location | Albarracín mountains, Teruel Province, Aragon, Spain |
| Mouth | |
| - location | Atlantic Ocean at Lisboa, Portugal |
Tagus (Latin Tagus, Spanish Tajo, Portuguese Tejo, pron. IPA: ['tɛʒʊ]) is the largest 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. It drains an area of 80,100 km² (the second largest in the Iberian peninsula after the Douro). It follows a very constricted course for much of its length, but after Almorol it enters a vast alluvian valley prone to flooding. Today the Alcantara Dam regulates much of the river's flow.
The source of the Tagus is the Fuente de García, in the Albarracín mountains. It ends in the Atlantic Ocean by Lisbon. The largest bridge across the river is Vasco da Gama bridge (in Lisbon) with a total length of 17.2 km. It was at the time also the largest bridge in Europe.
The main cities it passes through are Aranjuez, Toledo, Talavera de la Reina and Alcántara in Spain, and Constância, Santarem and Lisbon in Portugal.
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 transvasement between the Tagus and the Segura River.
