Guadalquivir

Guadalquivir (Arab. Wâdi-al-Kebir, 'the great river'; anc. Betis), the most important river of Spain, and the only one that, fed by the rains in winter and the Sierra Nevada's melting snows in summer, presents at all seasons a full stream. It rises in the Sierra de Cazorla, in the east of the province of Jaen, flows in a general south-west direction through the provinces of Jaen, Cordova, Seville, and, forming the boundary for about 10 miles between the provinces of Huelva and Cadiz, falls into the Gulf of Cadiz at San Lucar de Barrameda, after a course of 374 miles. Strelbitsky estimates its drainage area at 21,580 sq. m. The principal towns on its banks are Cordova and Seville, to the last of which, about 80 miles above its mouth, the river is navigable for steamers. Below Seville it twice divides itself into two branches, forming two islands—the Isla Menor and the Isla Mayor. Its chief affluents are the Guadajoz and the Jenil on the left, and the Guadalimar and the Guadiato on the right. At Montoro it breaks through the outlying spurs of the central Sierra Morena in a series of rapids, but its lower course is sluggish and dreary in the extreme; the stream itself is turbid and muddy, and eats its way through an alluvial level given up to herds of cattle and to water-fowl. There are no villages in this district, which, though favourable to animal and vegetable life, is fatal to man, from the fever and ague caused by the numerous swamps. During the equinoctial rains the river rises sometimes 10 feet, and the country is yearly flooded as far up as Seville, to which point the tide is noticeable.