GUADIANA (anc. Anas, Moorish

See also:

• WADI

Wadi

See also:

• ANA

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 Jilcar, 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 .