GUADALQUIVIR RIVER: SOURCE, ROUTE, MOUTH, HISTORY - GEOGRAPHY - 2024

The Guadalquivir River is located in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain, running through the provinces of Jaén, Córdoba, Seville and Cádiz from east to west. Its river basin of 57,527 km extends to other areas such as Huelva, Malaga, Granada and Almería.

It has a length of 657 kilometers, ranking fifth on the list of the longest rivers in the Iberian Peninsula. Among the rivers of Spain, it is probably the most important in terms of river traffic, being navigable nowadays from the sea to Seville, where its most significant part rests.

The Guadalquivir registers approximately 3,357 cubic meters of volume of its waters per year. Photo: Córdoba European Capital of Culture Foundation

In the Andalusian capital, it has been modified with dredging, through the construction of channels to facilitate transport and trade activities in its waters. This allows you to receive merchant ships or cruise ships throughout the year.

Between tourism, commerce, culture and beauty, the Guadalquivir river is the main natural resource of Andalusian idiosyncrasy, source of the most enriching historical experiences for its inhabitants.

Birth

Officially, the Guadalquivir river is born in the Cañada de las Fuentes (Quesada), in the province of Jaén, located in the Sierra de Cazorla at 1,350 meters of altitude. Among Salgareño pines, maples, ash trees and a very enriching rural environment full of humidity and a woody essence, the Guadalquivir route begins.

However, this fact is at the center of the controversy and there are divided opinions about his place of birth. Historians have made repeated investigations about the true birthplace of the Guadalquivir and many have reached the same conclusion, which differs from the official one in the Cañada de las Fuentes.

These studies show that the river originates in the Sierra de María, between Topares and the Cañada de Cañepla, in the province of Almería.

Hydrographic map of the Guadalquivir river. Port (u * o) s

These statements are due to scientific conclusions that indicate, through measurements of the sources of the Guadalquivir, that its origin refers to Granada, from where it crosses until it reaches the Sierra de María in Almería.

Those who support this version refer the fact that the river officially rises in the Cañada de las Fuentes to a “historical error” that occurred around 1243, during the monarchy of Fernando III el Santo, when the decree of origin was politically assumed.

In the book Guadalquivires edited by the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CGH) in 1977, the scientific study that refers the source of the river to the province of Almería was published for the first time. The truth is that at present, the Sierra de Cazorla continues to be the official and legal starting point of the Guadalquivir.

Route and mouth

From its source in the Sierra de Cazorla, at its highest point the Guadalquivir runs from east to west through various areas such as Cerrada de los Tejos and Raso del Tejar, until it reaches the Puente de las Herrerías.

From 1,350 meters above sea level, it descends to 980 meters above sea level in the Cerrada del Utrero, where it begins to lose height until it reaches the Pantano del Tranco and is located 650 meters above sea level to go to its middle course, which begins by crossing the edges of the Natural Park of the Sierra de Cazorla Segura and the Villas.

Further down, in the direction of the Puente de la Cerrada reservoir, it is already set at 350 meters above sea level. Further on it borders the Sierra Morena, still in its passage through the province of Jaén, to later limit with Córdoba in Marmolejo, supplying itself with the waters of the Yeguas river.

Already in its lower course, the Guadalquivir runs through Córdoba passing through Amodóvar del Río, Posadas and Palma del Río before entering Seville, where it begins its course in Peñaflor, Lora del Río and Alcolea del Río, among other areas.

Later it fragments into swampy areas known as Marismas del Guadalquivir, near the Doñana National Park. Then it delimits with its waters the borders between the provinces of Cádiz and Huelva, to flow into the Atlantic Ocean from Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

In Jaén, the Guadalquivir river passes through Villanueva de la Reina, Baeza, Santo Tomé, Marmolejo, Mengíbar, Puente del Obispo and Andújar; In the province of Córdoba it bathes El Carpio, Palma del Río, Villa del Río, Montoro and Córdoba capital.

As it passes through Seville, in addition to the capital, it runs through La Rinconada, Villaverde del Río, Gelves, Peñaflor, Coria del Río, Camas, San Juan de Aznalfarache, Lora del Río, Brenes, Puebla del Río and Alcalá del Río. In Cádiz it extends through Trebujena and Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

History

Guadalquivir River as it passes through Córdoba (Spain). Author: Rafaelji, wikimedia commons.

The existence of the river has led to great wealth, cultural exchanges and the birth of civilizations in different generations, especially in Seville, which is why it is considered a historical natural jewel of Andalusia.

The first western civilization

The Guadalquivir served as the axis for the establishment of Tartessos, the first western civilization that was forged with the river as the main resource for development towards the 6th century BC. C., which took place between what are now the provinces of Seville, Huelva and Cádiz. Hence, the Romans named it Betis and the Arabs al-wādi al-kabīr or “Guadalquivir”, which translates as 'big river'.

Through the coasts of the Guadalquivir, the Tartesan civilization was able to manage commercial relations with inhabitants of other areas of Andalusia and to interact beyond its mouth with those of the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Its main source of income was the copper and silver mines, as well as the transport of tin, food such as wheat and oil, as well as the drink of the time: wine, which is still valid today.

Everything was possible thanks to the fact that Tartessos had the possibility of placing its products on boats and transporting them from Andalusia to the Atlantic Ocean, crossing the Guadalquivir valley to its mouth. The river endowed them with an element that until today is essential for foreign trade: an outlet to the sea, the cultural and commercial connection with different civilizations.

The Reconquest of Seville

Around 1247, Ferdinand III of Castile commanded the Reconquest of Seville, which by then was under the dominion of the caid Axataf serving as the capital of the Al-Andalus caliphate.

After successfully taking the provinces of Córdoba and Jaén, he conquered the capital of Guadalquivir and, through heroic maritime military actions, liberated Seville from the breaking of the boat bridge.

After putting up resistance and trying to negotiate repeatedly, Axataf had no choice but to give in to the letter to the conditions imposed by Fernando III for his capitulation and subsequent liberation of Seville.

Since the victory of the Christian troops of Ferdinand III, Andalusia represented the axis of commercialism and foreign trade in the world thanks to its sea route, a title that it preserved and strengthened for more than 200 years.

Mile zero of the first round the world

The explorer Fernando de Magallanes undertook the most risky and ambitious journey of the time: to go around the world in an unprecedented exploration, which started from the waters of the Guadalquivir River on August 10, 1519.

Their boats descended by the riverbed towards Sanlúcar de Barrameda, to later set sail to the open sea in a westerly direction towards the Atlantic Ocean. This is how the Guadalquivir was immortalized in history as mile zero of the first round the world.

characteristics

Its 657 km in length are complemented by 57,527 km ² of the surface of its hydrographic basin, with an average flow of 164.3 cubic meters per second in Seville, 19.80 cubic meters per second in the Pantano del Tranco de Beas de the Sierra de Cazorla and 68.40 cubic meters per second in Marmolejo.

It registers approximately 3,357 cubic meters of volume of its water per year, which comes mainly from surface sources, although it also has underground water areas.

The hydrographic basin has a total of 8,782 hm ³ (cubic hectometres) of reservoir capacity. In addition to the Pantano del Tranco de Beas, its main reservoir, supplies the reservoirs of its tributaries in those of the towns of Iznájar, Negratín, Giribaile, Guadalmena, Bembézar and Jándula.

When sighting the river from the port of Seville, one element will undoubtedly draw the spotlight, and it is the number of vessels, boats, yachts and tourist cruises, in addition to the fleets destined for trade and transport.

Structural modifications

Pursuing the objective of bringing Seville as close to the sea as possible, between 1795 and 1972 the waters of the Guadalquivir were structurally modified in order to achieve this approach goal.

These modifications simplified elements such as navigation, reduced the number of overflows per year and promoted the productive development that takes place in the towns that live on the banks of the river at different points.

In total, six essential construction works were managed in the aforementioned period, which eliminated a large number of curves in the upper part and built different channels that shortened the routes and the length of travel of the boats, resulting in an improvement notable in trade activities in the area.

The riverbed was no exception and it also underwent significant changes, since before the river was navigable to the province of Córdoba and currently only reaches Seville.

At the height of Alcalá del Río, a Sevillian municipality, the river loses considerably in height in terms of meters above sea level, placing its waters at a completely navigable tidal point that is even at the same level as the sea.

Therefore, in the last section of Alcalá del Río, the Guadalquivir goes from being a river to an estuary. This transition is delimited by the Alcalá del Río Dam and Hydroelectric Plant.

Main tributaries

The rivers Guadajoz (Córdoba), Genil (Granada), Guadiato (Córdoba), Jándula, Guadabullón (Jaén) and Guadalimar (Albacete) are the main tributaries of the Guadalquivir.

To these are added the rivers Guadiana Menor (Granada and Jaén), Corbonés (Málaga), Guadaíra (Cádiz and Seville), Yeguas (Córdoba, Ciudad Real and Jaén), Viar (Seville), Rivera de Huelva, Guadalmellato and Bembézar (Cordova).

Flora

The flora in the Guadalquivir is highly varied. Among the most common trees we find types such as strawberry tree, cork oak, miera juniper, poplar, white poplar, ash, Saint Lucia cherry, chestnut, cinnamon, black pine and southern oak, among many others.

Herb species are even larger, ranging from pit maidenhair, yellow jasmine, marjoram, sunflower, rosemary, aladdin, carnation, gayomba, rockrose, lantana, and Veronica.

The bushes in the same way are scattered throughout the different areas of Andalusia that the river crosses: Matagallo on the coast, Cornicabra in Malaga, Granada, Jaén and Córdoba; Jagz cowboy in the Sierra Morena, Durillo to the east and Corregüela in the area of ​​the Guadalquivir basin.

Also the blue flax in the upper part of the river, rascavieja in the Sierra de Málaga and in the lower area of ​​the Andalusian mountains, the common mallow in almost all the territory and the rock bell in areas of Almería, Granada and Jaén.

Fauna

Cormorants in the margin of the Guadalquivir (Doñana). Authorship: Alexwing. Wikimedia commons.

Due to the diversity of its geography and nature, which has high mountains, low areas due to its high and middle riverbed, specific areas in the basin and in the Guadalquivir Marshes, the river has a wide range of mammal species, birds and fish.

Mammals such as wolves, squirrels, weasels, roe deer, wild boar, goats, lynxes, otters and fallow deer live there. The species of birds present in its ecosystem include the flamingo, the stork, the brown porrón, the Moorish coot, the griffon vulture, the little bittern, the imperial eagle, the Malvasia, the Squacco heron and the stork.

Fish abound in its waters. It is found goby, gambusia, catfish, eel, salinete, jarabugo, minnow, catfish, tench, piglet, oretana, chub, carp, tench, perch, alburno, trout, calandino, river boga, sturgeon, fartet, sea lamprey and common barbel, among many others.

Its specimen system is so wide and varied that it is considered the most important biodiverse reserve in Andalusia, indispensable for the different species that develop and maintain sustainable in the river.

This is possible thanks to the mix between fresh and salt water, the latter coming from the sea, which, when joining the riverbed, provides the perfect conditions for life to occur and the animals have enough food to survive.

References

1. The Nile River of Andalusia, article in the newspaper El País de España, published on May 14, 2006. Taken from elpais.com.
2. The Guadalquivir, the most important river in Andalusia, official website of Seville Tourism, visitsevilla.es.
3. Official website of the Ministry for Ecological Transition, Government of Spain, mitego.gob.es.
4. Where is the Guadalquivir born ?, Article in the newspaper El Mundo de España, published on April 25, 2010, elmundo.es.
5. Santiago Chiquero, Pablo (2011). Stories of the Guadalquivir. Seville: Andalusian Book Center.