Río Manzanares
The Manzanares is the river that flows through Madrid, although unlike in other capitals or major conurbations where the river is the main artery that irrigates the heart and/or the head of the city, in Madrid, the river is outcast on a flank, in the correspondingly called Madrid Río park, which, although itself a majestuous area, is not even the main park (this is el Retiro instead).
Indeed, the Manzanares acquires its most spectacular and reputable expression not in the country's capital, but in the mountains where it is born, in particular as it flows through la Pedriza.
Past Madrid, it merges with the Jarama, itself a tributary to the Tagus.
Etymology
Manzanares
means apple tree orchard
(vergers de pommiers
), although we have never seen any manzano in its vicinity. The origin of the name is unclear. There are many places named similarly, apparently from the river itself, although the exact connections are also unclear to us. Such places include:
- Manzanares el Real
- Hoyo de Manzanares
- Another Manzanares (in Ciudad Real).
Explorations
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