TAGUS (Span. Tajo, Portug. Tejo)

This article appears in Volume V26, Page 356 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SUS-TAV

TAGUS (Span. Tajo, Portug. Tejo) , the longest river of the Iberian Peninsula. Its length is 565 m., of which 192 are on or within the frontier of Portugal, and the area of its basin is about 31,850 sq. M. The basin is comparatively narrow, and the Tagus, like the other rivers of the Iberian tableland, generallyflows in a rather confined valley, often at the bottom of a rocky gorge below the general level of the adjacent country. The river rises on the western slope of the Muela de San Juan (5225 ft.), a mountain which forms part of the Sierra de Albarracin, 88 m. E. of Madrid. Thence the Tagus flows at first north-westwards, but, after receiving the Gallo on the right, it flows west, and then

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

-west or west-

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

-west, which is its general direction for the rest of its course. Regular river navigation begins only at Abrantes, a few miles below which the Tagus is greatly widened by receiving on its right bank the impetuous Zezere from the Serra da Estrella. Passing

Santarem

SANTAREM

, the highest point to which the tide ascends, and the limit of navigation for large sailing vessels and steamers, the river divides below Salvaterra into two arms, called the Tejo Novo (the only one practicable for ships) and the Mar de Pedro. These branches enclose a deltaic formation, a low

tract

TRACT (from Lat. tractare, to treat of a matter, through Provencal tractat and Ital. trattato)

of marshy

alluvium

ALLUVIUM

known as the Lezirias, traversed by several

minor

channels. Both branches terminate in a broad tidal lake immediately above Lisbon (q.v.). The Tagus estuary, though partly blocked by a bar of sand, is one of the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

harbours of south-western Europe.
The narrower part of the Tagus basin lies to the south, and the left-hand tributaries which drain it are almost all mere

brooks

, dry in summer. The principal exception is the Zatas or Sorraia, which, rising in the Serra d'Ossa, flows westwards across the

plateau

PLATEAU (a French term, older platel, for a flat piece of wood, metal, &c., from plat, flat)
PLATEAU, JOSEPH
ANTOINE
- ANTOINE, ANDRE (1858- )
FERDINAND (1801-1883)

Alemtejo

ALEMTEJO (i.e. " Beyond the Tagus ")

, and joins the Mar de Pedro. The principal right-hand tributaries, besides the Gallo and Zezere, are the Jarama, descending from the tableland of New Castile a little below Aranjuez, the Alberche and the Tietar, which collect their head waters from opposite sides of the Sierra de Gredos, and the Alagon, from the rough and broken country between the Sierras de Gredos and Gata.

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