The river today drains the
Granada basin. In the latest
Tortonian and the middle and late
Turolian (9.0–5.3 Ma) this was an
endorheic basin. Rivers flowed from the east and southwest into a central lake with no exit. During the
Pliocene, the western part of the basin was drained by the paleo-Cacín river system, which flowed to the north and then left the basin to the west. The eastern part was drained by the Alhambra system, or paleo-Genil system, was fed by the mountains to the east and fed a small endorheic lake in the north. Some time later, the Genil river changed course to flow west, where it joined the paleo-Cacin system, and the basin became
exorheic. == See also ==