Henares River

The Henares is a river in the center of the Iberian Peninsula, a left tributary of the Jarama River. Belonging to the Tagus hydrographic basin, it crosses the Spanish provinces of Guadalajara and Madrid. The most important urban centers through which it passes are Azuqueca de Henares, Guadalajara, Jadraque, Humanes and Sigüenza, in the province of Guadalajara, and Alcalá de Henares, Torrejón de Ardoz, San Fernando de Henares and Mejorada del Campo, in the Community of Madrid.

Toponymy

Its name comes from the Spanish word henar, which means hay field. It owes this name to the hay crops that were formerly practiced in its basin.

The word henares has been incorporated, as a suffix, in the place names of several towns. It is worth mentioning, in addition to those already mentioned above, Azuqueca de Henares, Carrascosa de Henares, Castejón de Henares, Castilblanco de Henares, Espinosa de Henares, Moratilla de Henares, Tórtola de Henares, Villaseca de Henares and Yunquera de Henares, all of them in the province of Guadalajara, in addition to Alcalá de Henares and San Fernando de Henares in the Community of Madrid, despite the fact that the river that borders the urban center is the Jarama, with the Henares crossing part of its municipal area. It also gives its name to Soto del Henares, a neighborhood in Torrejón de Ardoz.

Between the municipalities of Alcalá de Henares and Los Santos de la Humosa there is a protected natural area called Soto del Henares, which is located on both banks of the river.

By extension, the area that includes the western appendix of the province of Guadalajara and the eastern part of the Community of Madrid, one of the most densely populated in the center of the Iberian Peninsula, is popularly known as the Henares Corridor.

The river has also given its name to the Henares hydrographic basin, according to the classification of the General Directorate of Tourism, dependent on the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Community of Madrid.

Course

It is born in the Sierra Ministera, in the Castilian branch of the Iberian system, at 1,220 m altitude. Its source is located northeast of Horna, near Sigüenza. It flows in a northeast-southwest direction.

It has a route of 160 km, most of which (approximately 124) through Guadalajara lands. In this section, the Sorbe, the Cañamares, the Salado, the Aliendre and the Bornova flow to the right, and the Dulce and the Badiel flow to the left.

It enters the province of Madrid at Los Santos de la Humosa and heads towards Alcalá de Henares, at which point it receives the Camarmilla stream and the Torote river on the right, the last of its important tributaries. It flows into the Jarama, northwest of the urban area of Mejorada del Campo, at an altitude of 578 m. Due to its flow and length, the Henares is the most important tributary of the Jarama River. Its basin occupies an area of 4,144 km².

It is described in the ninth volume of the Geographical-statistical-historical dictionary of Spain and its overseas possessions by Pascual Madoz as follows:

HENARES: r. in the prov. of Guadalajara, part. jud. of Sigüenza; it has its birth in Horna, whose term. fertilizes and after driving 3 batanions and 5 flour mills, continues to the of Alcuneza where they do not take advantage of its waters for the irrigation, by the depth of its channel, runs the of Mojares where it has a ponton of stone and from called Tordelahija; Jadraque where besides the benefit of the irrigation that provides its fertile vega, moves 2 flour mills and passing under a stone bridge, leaves the part. from Sigiienza and come in to bathe in the Brihuega term. of houses of San Galindo and Heras, receive in the latter the r. Vadiel and penetrate in the part. from Guadalajara to visit the ones of Yunquera, Fotanar, El Cañal, where he takes the creek of Dueñas and makes walking a flour mill; Guadalajara where he has another mill and a stone bridge with 8 arches; Cabanillas in which he gives his waters to another mill; Alovera and Chiloeches, between whose 2 villages there is a bar of passage belonging to the second, and finally penetrates Azuqueca from where he leaves the prov. of Alcalá, tearm. jurisd. of the Saints of the Humous: run to the sight of the indicated c. of Alcalá about 400 steps, has its course among the orchards called of the Esgarabila and the Chorrillo, in the direction of SO. and upon reaching the fountain of the Juncar and the wall of the Miracle, where he crosses a good stone bridge with 10 arches, receives the rings of Camarmilla and Torote, and goes to dewater in the Jarama to the vicinity of Improved. It is this r. one of the objects of our geography that recall with their names that eastern transmigration, which led by the prototype of all Hercules so many memories left along the ant. Iberia: the Eastern Voice nahar is the appeal equivalent to ours rio.

(Madoz, 1847, p. 167)

Literature

From the Buscón de Quevedo, the Henares River has been flowing through the pages of Spanish literature with its usual gentleness. In the middle of the 20th century , Ferlosio describes it like this in his first novel:

The Henares is a terrific river that descends through the dark lands and comes from the dark mountains. It is made with the leftovers of the clouds forgotten by the vericuetos of serrania.

Industrias y Andanzas de Alfanhuí. 1951. Part one, chapter XV.