River Aquarium

The Zaragoza River Aquarium, one of the three thematic pavilions of the Zaragoza 2008 International Exposition, is the largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world.

It has 8,000 m2 of built area, of which 3,400 m2 are exhibition space. Its 70 tanks house more than 5,000 animals from over 350 different species of river fauna characteristic of each of the five rivers represented: the Nile, Mekong, Amazon, Murray-Darling, and the Ebro.

The building has different sections, with the central space representing glaciers, the origin of all rivers, veritable reservoirs of water that feed them with meltwater; The large freshwater tank that runs through its interior symbolizes primordial water, the “Great World River.” The volumes that make up the exhibition space represent the diverse parts of the earth which, fertilized by rivers, germinate into an exhibition of diversity. On either side are the quadrangular halls that house the exhibition spaces dedicated to the Nile, Mekong, Amazon, Murray-Darling, and Ebro rivers. Three of these (Nile, Mekong, and Murray-Darling) are confined to a single floor; the other two occupy both levels of the building. The complex is completed by a large area in the semi-basement dedicated to technical services and water purification and conditioning systems for the aquariums.