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The Magdalena River ( es, Río Magdalena, ; less commonly ) is the main
river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...
of
Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...
, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure
Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurre ...
. It is navigable through much of its lower reaches, in spite of the shifting sand bars at the mouth of its delta, as far as
Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...
, at the downstream base of its rapids. It flows through the Magdalena River Valley. Its
drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...
covers a surface of , which is 24% of the country's area and where 66% of its population lives.


Course

The Magdalena River is the largest river system of the northern Andes, with a length of 1,612 km. Its headwaters are in the south of Colombia, where the
Andean The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S l ...
subranges Cordillera Central and Cordillera Oriental separate, in
Huila Department Huila () is one of the departments of Colombia. It is located in the southwest of the country, and its capital is Neiva. Demography and Ethnography Huila is a department that has a population of 1,122,622 inhabitants, of which 679,667 (60.54% ...
. The river runs east then north in a great valley between the two cordilleras. It reaches the coastal plain at about nine degrees north, then runs west for about , then north again, reaching the
Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexic ...
at the city of
Barranquilla Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Co ...
in the zone known as Bocas de Ceniza.


Flora and fauna


Fish

The Magdalena River basin, which includes the
Cauca River The Cauca River () is a river in Colombia that lies between the Occidental and Central cordilleras. From its headwaters in southwestern Colombia near the city of Popayán, it joins the Magdalena River near Magangue in Bolivar Department, and ...
and other tributaries, are very rich in fish. , 213 fish species were known from the basin.Maldonado-Ocampo; Vari; and Usma (2008). ''Checklist of the Freshwater Fishes of Colombia.'' Biota Colombiana 9: 143–237. Since then several
new species A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...
have been described from the basin such as five '' Hemibrycon'' in 2013, two '' Ancistrus'' in 2013 and a '' Farlowella'' in 2014. Among the more famous species in the basin are '' Kronoheros umbriferus'', '' Ctenolucius hujeta'', '' Geophagus steindachneri'', '' Ichthyoelephas longirostris'', ''
Panaque cochliodon The blue-eyed plec, ''Panaque cochliodon'', is a herbivorous freshwater armored catfish endemic to Colombia where it occurs in the Cauca and Magdalena River basins. It is distinguished from many loricariids by being dark grey to black and havi ...
'', '' Pimelodus blochii'', '' Potamotrygon magdalenae'', ''
Prochilodus magdalenae ''Prochilodus magdalenae'' is a tropical prochilodontid freshwater fish from Colombia. It is found in the Atrato, Sinú, Cauca and Magdalena Rivers. It has been measured to reach in standard length and in weight. They have a growing role in ...
'', '' Pseudoplatystoma magdaleniatum'' and ''
Salminus ''Salminus'', popularly known as dorado or dourado, is a genus of relatively large (up to long), predatory freshwater fish from the family Characidae. They are native to large tropical and subtropical rivers in South America, and undertake migr ...
affinis''. About 55% of the fish species in the basin are
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
, including four endemic
genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...
: The catfish '' Centrochir'' and '' Eremophilus'', and the characids '' Carlastyanax'' (often included in ''
Astyanax In Greek mythology, Astyanax (; grc, Ἀστυάναξ ''Astyánax'', "lord of the city") was the son of Hector, the crown prince of Troy, and his wife, Princess Andromache of Cilician Thebe."Astyanax". ''Oxford Classical Dictionary''. Oxford, ...
'') and '' Genycharax''.Freshwater Ecoregions of the World:
Magdalena – Sinu.
'' Retrieved 12 August 2014.
In general, the fish fauna shows connections with surrounding basins, notably
Atrato Atrato is a municipality and town in the Chocó Department near the Pacific Ocean, Colombia. Climate Atrato has an extremely wet tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate, humid tropical climate or equatorial climate is a tropi ...
and
Maracaibo ) , motto = "''Muy noble y leal''"(English: "Very noble and loyal") , anthem = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_alt = ...
, but to a lesser extent also
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...
. The most productive
fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...
areas in Colombia are in the basin, but there has been a drastic decrease in the annual harvest with a fall of about 90% between 1975 and 2008. The primary threats are pollution (such as human waste, mining, farming and deforestation causing
siltation Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate Terrestrial ecoregion, terrestrial Clastic rock, clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the ...
) and habitat loss (such a dams). Additional dams are being constructed, including El Quimbo (opened in 2015) and Ituango (expected operational in 2018), which has caused some controversy. As a result of the pollution,
heavy metals upright=1.2, Crystals of osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals are generally defined as ...
have also been detected in some commercially important fish in the river. , 19 fish species in the river basin were recognized as threatened.Granado-Lorencio; Serna; Carvajal; Jiménez-Segura; Gulfo; and Alvarez (2012). ''Regionally nested patterns of fish assemblages in floodplain lakes of the Magdalena river (Colombia).'' Ecol Evol. 2(6): 1296–1303.


Other animals

The Magdalena River and its valley crosses a wide variety of ecosystems, like
páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrowe ...
in its headwaters, dry forest in the upper part of its valley, rainforest in its middle course, and swamps and wetlands in its lower course. The spectacled caiman, green iguana and brown pelican are abundant in these ecosystems but other animal species like the West Indian manatee, Magdalena tinamou, Todd's parakeet, American crocodile,
Colombian slider ''Trachemys callirostris'' is a turtle in the family Emydidae found in Colombia and Venezuela. Description The turtle's carapace is green with light colors with dark splotches between them. The head of the turtle includes yellow lines and a sp ...
,
Magdalena River turtle The Magdalena River turtle or Rio Magdalena river turtle (''Podocnemis lewyana'') is a species of turtle in the family Podocnemididae,Dahl's toad-headed turtle and red-footed tortoise are in danger of extinction. In addition, there is a possible risk posed by invasive
hippopotamus The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two exta ...
. Originally imported by
Pablo Escobar Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed "the king of cocaine", Escobar is the wealthiest criminal i ...
, these hippopotami became feral following his demise, and have since expanded beyond their original home on Hacienda Napoles into nearby regions of the Magdalena River.


History

Due to its geographical position in the north of
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...
, the Magdalena River was since precolumbian times a route towards the interior of present-day Colombia and
Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
. Several Carib-speaking peoples such as the Panche and the Yariguí ascended through the western bank of the river, while its eastern portion was inhabited by the Muisca civilization, which called the river ''Yuma''. Likewise, the Spanish
conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...
es who arrived to today's Colombia early in the 16th century used the river to push to the wild and mountainous inland after Rodrigo de Bastidas discovered and named the river on April 1, 1501. During the
Spanish colonization of the Americas Spain began colonizing the Americas under the Crown of Castile and was spearheaded by the Spanish . The Americas were invaded and incorporated into the Spanish Empire, with the exception of Brazil, British America, and some small regions ...
, the river was the only transport link communicating
Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...
with the Caribbean Sea port
Cartagena de Indias Cartagena ( , also ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a link ...
and thus with Europe. The Magdalena Campaign of Pierre Labatut and
Simón Bolívar Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830) was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and B ...
took place along the Magdalena River. In 1825, the Congress of Colombia awarded a concession to establish steam navigation in the Magdalena River to Juan Bernardo Elbers, but his company closed shortly after. By 1845,
steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...
s regularly travelled on the river until 1961, when the last steamers ceased operation.


In mass media

Much of the film '' Love in the Time of Cholera'' takes place in the historic, walled city of Cartagena in Colombia. Some screenshots showed the Magdalena River and the
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (English: ''Snow-Covered Mountain Range of Saint Martha'') is an isolated mountain range in northern Colombia, separate from the Andes range that runs through the north of the country. Reaching an elevation of ...
mountain range. '' The General in His Labyrinth'', by Gabriel García Márquez, is a fictionalized account of the final voyage of
Simón Bolívar Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830) was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and B ...
down the Magdalena River, where he revisits many cities and villages along the river. In ''Magdalena: River of Dreams'' (Knopf, 2020), Canadian writer, anthropologist, and explorer Wade Davis travels the length of the river by boat, on foot, by car, and on horseback combining descriptions of nature with episodes from Colombian history.


References

{{Authority control Rivers of Colombia Ramsar sites in Colombia