Ruud Streefkerk

In a small forest lake full of ducks, beautiful turquoise-tinted water rises. We are here at the source of the Ebro in Fontibre in the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain, about 880 meters above sea level, near Reinosa. Fontibre refers to the Latin Fontes Iberis, so the Ebro is also the namesake of the Iberian Peninsula. But although until recently this place was considered the source ('nacimiento') of the Ebro, today the sources of the Hijar, about 27 km away at the Pico de Tres Mares at an altitude of 1980 m, are considered the real source of the Ebro. Downstream is the Rioja wine region and large hydroelectric power plants supply about half of spain's hydroelectricity. At its mouth in the Mediterranean, the river has finally formed a large delta of almost 8000 ha, the most important wetland in Catalonia, an 'aviary' where more than a hundred thousand birds of up to three hundred species gather.