The Odiel () is a river in the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
basin in southern Spain, more precisely in the
province
A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Huelva
Huelva ( , , ) is a municipality of Spain and the capital of the Huelva (province), province of Huelva, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. Located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it sits betwee ...
,
Andalusia
Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...
. It originates at Marimateos in the
Sierra de Aracena at an elevation of above sea level. At the Punta del Sebo, it joins the
Rio Tinto to form the
Huelva Estuary. Its principal tributaries are the Escalada, Meca, Olivargas, Oraque, Santa Eulalia, and El Villar. Its basin covers .
In
Roman times it was known as the ''Urius'', although some scholars have proposed to identify the Odiel with another ancient name normally associated with the Río Tinto (''Luxia''). Even before the Romans, its mouth was an important place of commerce, as can be seen by archaeological remnants from
Phoenicia
Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...
ns and
Ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically re ...
, known as the "Huelva Estuary Deposit" (), dated 1000
BCE.
Depósito de la ría
, ''Arte e historia''. Accessed online 2009-12-24.
See also
* List of rivers of Spain
This is an incomplete list of rivers that are at least partially in Spain. The rivers flowing into the sea are sorted along the coast. Rivers flowing into other rivers are listed by the rivers they flow into. Rivers in the mainland Iberian Peninsu ...
Notes
Rivers of Spain
Rivers of Andalusia
Geography of the Province of Huelva
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