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Guadiana River

Guadiana River
Rio Guadiana
Guadiana river.jpg
The River Guadiana in the area around Serpa, Portugal
Name origin: Arabic derivative of Wadi Ana, meaning River Ana
Countries Portugal, Spain
Tributaries
 - left
 - right
Source Ojos del Guadiana
 - location Villarrubia de los Ojos, Castile–La Mancha, Spain
 - elevation 608 m (1,995 ft)
 - coordinates 39°7′36″N 3°43′36″W / 39.12667°N 3.72667°W / 39.12667; -3.72667
Mouth Gulf of Cádiz
 - location Vila Real de Santo António, Algarve, Portugal
 - elevation 0 m (0 ft)
 - coordinates 37°10′12″N 7°23′37″W / 37.17000°N 7.39361°W / 37.17000; -7.39361Coordinates: 37°10′12″N 7°23′37″W / 37.17000°N 7.39361°W / 37.17000; -7.39361
Length 818 km (508 mi)
Depth 17 m (56 ft)
Basin 67,733 km2 (26,152 sq mi)
Discharge
 - average 600 m3/s (21,189 cu ft/s)
 - max 1,500 m3/s (52,972 cu ft/s)
 - min 20 m3/s (706 cu ft/s)
Rio guadiana.svg
About 83 percent, 55,000 square kilometres (21,000 sq mi), of the River Guadiana watershed is in Spain; the rest is in Portugal

The Guadiana River (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡwaˈðjana], Portuguese: [ɡwɐðiˈɐ̃nɐ]), or Odiana, is an international river defining a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border, separating Extremadura and Andalucia (Spain) from Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal). The river's basin extends from the eastern portion of Extremadura to the southern provinces of the Algarve; the river and its tributaries flow from east to west, then south through Portugal to the border towns of Vila Real de Santo António (Portugal) and Ayamonte (Spain), where it flows into the Gulf of Cádiz. With a course that covers a distance of 829 kilometres (515 mi), it is the fourth-longest in the Iberian peninsula, and its hydrological basin extends over an area of approximately 68,000 square kilometres (26,000 sq mi) (the majority of which lies within Spain).

The Romans referred to the river as the Flumen Anas, the river of ducks. During the Moorish occupation and settlement, the name was extended and referred to as Wadi Ana (wadi being the Arab term for river), later passed on to Portuguese and Spanish settlers as the Ouadiana, and later just Odiana. Since the 16th century, due to Castilian influences, the name has slowly evolved to take on the form Guadiana, a cognitive variation that developed from many Moorish-Arab river place-names using the prefix guad (such as the rivers Guadalquivir, Guadalete, Guadalajara or Guadarrama).


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