Grijalva
Grijalva is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 17.37°, -93.41°
About Grijalva
Grijalva River, formerly known as Tabasco River (Spanish: Río Grijalva, known locally also as Río Grande de Chiapas, Río Grande and Mezcalapa River), is a 480 km (300 mi) long river in southeastern Mexico. It is named after Spanish conquistador Juan de Grijalva who visited the area in 1518. This river is born in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes in the department of Huehuetenango in Guatemala, where it is known as Río Seleguá and is one of the most important rivers in that country.
The river rises from Río Grande de Chiapas in southeastern Chiapas and flows from Chiapas to the state of Tabasco through the Sumidero Canyon into the Bay of Campeche. Beginning as "Río Grande de Chiapas" or "Río Mezcalapa", later, Río Grande is stopped at the Angostura Dam (Mexico), one of the largest reservoirs in Mexico, and then its course is now named "Grijalva River". The river's drainage basin is 134,400 km2 (51,900 mi2) in size. Because of the close connection to the Usumacinta River (the two combine, flowing into the Gulf of Mexico in a single delta), they are often regarded as a single river basin, the Grijalva-Usumacinta River.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Grijalva River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Grijalva: Quick Answers
- Where is Grijalva?
- Grijalva is located in Mexico, at 17.3674° N, 93.4090° W.
- Are there dams on the Grijalva?
- No dam on the Grijalva is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.