Guadalquivir Marshes

Rice field in Las Marismas, near Villafranco del Guadalquivir

The Guadalquivir Marshes (Spanish: Las Marismas del Guadalquivir) is an area of marshy lowlands near the banks of Guadalquivir River, part of Seville province, in Western (Spain), which contains part of the territories of the municipalities of Isla Mayor, Los Palacios y Villafranca, La Puebla del Río, Utrera, Las Cabezas de San Juan and Lebrija.

The main economic activity is agriculture, with emphasis on the cultivation of rice, with 400 km² and a production output of 310,000 metric tones (approximately 40% of Spain rice production). The area behaves like a natural buffer to Doñana National Park.

Approximately twenty centuries ago, it was a large inner lake, known as Lacus Ligustinus in Latin, surrounded by the Guadalquivir River and its tributaries and coastal sand bars to the South. The lake later became infilled with deposited sediment, gradually giving way to the current marshes.^[1]

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