A swimming pool is an artificial reservoir of water.
A swimming pool is a reservoir that is artificially constructed for the storage of water . The term of our language comes from the Hispanic Arabic albírka , in turn derived from the classical Arabic birkah.
The pool is a hydraulic work that can be developed with walls to create the pond or from an excavation in the ground . In general, its construction is due to the need to irrigate certain surfaces.
Beyond this use that was originally given to the pools, over the years these works began to be linked to recreation and ornamentation . Thus the pools were integrated into the gardens.
Pool types
Currently you can distinguish between several types of swimming pools. The irrigation pond is a small tank , usually excavated, whose purpose is to allow irrigation of nearby lands. The leisure pool , for its part, is intended for bathing and water games: by extension of this meaning, in several regions swimming pools are called pools.
The ornamental pool , on the other hand, is installed in the center of a garden or patio as a decorative element. The distribution pool , finally, is characterized by its large dimensions since its purpose is to store water so that it can be used in periods of drought .
There are different types of swimming pools.
Its use in Spain
In Spain , specifically in some of its most significant monuments, you can admire important pools built in previous centuries. Thus, for example, we find them in the Alcázares of the Christian Monarchs of Córdoba . In the gardens you can discover a wide variety of pools that are mainly distributed across three terraces and are surrounded by beautiful plant species.
In the same way, it also happens in the Alhambra in Granada and in the Real Alcázar in the city of Seville .
To all of the above we can also add that in some corners of Andalusia , the term is used to refer to the swimming pools that are built in farmhouses and that are created to be able to cool off with a bath during the summer season, in which the temperatures They are very high.
Pool as a name
We can also mention that La Alberca de Záncara ( Castilla-La Mancha ) and Alberca de las Torres ( Murcia ) are different territorial entities of Spain .
In the province of Salamanca there is also a municipality that responds to the name of La Alberca . It belongs to the Sierra de Francia region, has about 1,100 inhabitants and is considered to have Visigoth origin.
Although this town is small, we cannot ignore that it has a notable series of places of interest for tourists. Among those sites are its great tower, which was paid for by the Dukes of Alba ; the Hermitage of San Marcos from the 18th century ; the Parish Church , also from the 18th century ; and the Batuecas valley, which is listed as an Asset of Cultural Interest.