Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6Various
Science
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6
Various
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
GUADIANA (anc. _Anas_, Moorish _Wadi Ana_), a river of Spain and
Portugal. The Guadiana was long believed to rise in the lowland known as
the Campo de Montiel, where a chain of small lakes, the Lagunas de
Ruidera (partly in Ciudad Real, partly in Albacete), are linked together
by the Guadiana Alto or Upper Guadiana. This stream flows north-westward
from the last lake and vanishes underground within 3 m. of the river
Zancara or Giguela. About 22 m. S.W. of the point of disappearance, the
Guadiana Alto was believed to re-emerge in the form of several large
springs, which form numerous lakes near the Zancara and are known as the
"eyes of the Guadiana" (_los ojos de Guadiana_). The stream which
connects them with the Zancara is called the Guadiana Bajo or Lower
Guadiana. It is now known that the Guadiana Alto has no such course, but
flows underground to the Zancara itself, which is the true "Upper
Guadiana." The Zancara rises near the source of the Jucar, in the east
of the tableland of La Mancha; thence it flows westward, assuming the
name of Guadiana near Ciudad Real, and reaching the Portuguese frontier
6 m. S.W. of Badajoz. In piercing the Sierra Morena it forms a series of
foaming rapids, and only begins to be navigable at Mertola, 42 m. from
its mouth. From the neighbourhood of Badajoz it forms the boundary
between Spain and Portugal as far as a point near Monsaraz, where it
receives the small river Priega Munoz on the left, and passes into
Portuguese territory, with a southerly direction. At Pomarao it again
becomes a frontier stream and forms a broad estuary 25 m. long. It
enters the Gulf of Cadiz between the Portuguese town of Villa Real de
Santo Antonio and the Spanish Ayamonte, after a total course of 510 m.
Its mouth is divided by sandbanks into many channels. The Guadiana
drains an area of 31,940 sq. m. Its principal tributaries are the Zujar,
Jabalon, Matachel and Ardila from the left; the Bullaque, Ruecas, Botoa,
Degebe and Cobres from the right.
The GUADIANA MENOR (or _Guadianamenor_, i.e. "Lesser Guadiana") rises in
the Sierra Nevada, receives two large tributaries, the Fardes from the
right and Barbata from the left, and enters the Guadalquivir near Ubeda,
after a course of 95 m.
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