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The Don ( rus, Дон, p=don) is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in
Southern Russia Southern Russia or the South of Russia (russian: Юг России, ''Yug Rossii'') is a colloquial term for the southernmost geographic portion of European Russia generally covering the Southern Federal District and the North Caucasian Feder ...
, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
. Its basin is between the
Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...
basin to the west, the lower
Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catch ...
basin immediately to the east, and the
Oka Oka or OKA may refer to: Cars * Oka (automobile), a small car designed by AvtoVAZ and produced by ZMA and SeAZ * OKA 4wd, a large 4-wheel-drive vehicle made in Western Australia by OKA Military * 2B1 Oka, Soviet 420 mm self-propelled mort ...
basin (tributary of the Volga) to the north. Native to much of the basin were Slavic nomads. The Don rises in the town of Novomoskovsk southeast of
Tula Tula may refer to: Geography Antarctica *Tula Mountains * Tula Point India * Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar Iran * Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province Italy * Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the ...
(in turn south of
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
), and flows 1,870 kilometres to the Sea of Azov. The river's upper half ribbles (meanders subtly) south; however, its lower half consists of a great eastern curve, including Voronezh, making its final stretch, an
estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...
, run west south-west. The main city on the river is Rostov-on-Don. Its main tributary is the Seversky Donets, centred on the mid-eastern end of Ukraine, thus the other country in the overall basin. To the east of a series of three great ship locks and associated ponds is the Volga-Don Canal.


History

According to the
Kurgan hypothesis The Kurgan hypothesis (also known as the Kurgan theory, Kurgan model, or steppe theory) is the most widely accepted proposal to identify the Proto-Indo-European homeland from which the Indo-European languages spread out throughout Europe and pa ...
, the Volga-Don river region was the homeland of the
Proto-Indo-Europeans The Proto-Indo-Europeans are a hypothetical prehistoric population of Eurasia who spoke Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the ancestor of the Indo-European languages according to linguistic reconstruction. Knowledge of them comes chiefly from ...
around 4000 BC. The Don river functioned as a fertile cradle of civilization where the Neolithic farmer culture of the Near East fused with the hunter-gatherer culture of Siberian groups, resulting in the nomadic pastoralism of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The east Slavic tribe of the Antes inhabited the Don and other areas of
Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...
and Central Russia. The area around the Don was influenced by the
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
because the river was important for traders from Byzantium. In antiquity, the river was viewed as the border between Europe and Asia by some ancient Greek geographers. In the Book of Jubilees, it is mentioned as being part of the border, beginning with its easternmost point up to its mouth, between the allotments of the sons of Noah, that of Japheth to the north and that of Shem to the south. During the times of the old
Scythia Scythia ( Scythian: ; Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) or Scythica (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe. ...
ns it was known in Greek as the ''Tanaïs'' () and has been a major trading route ever since. '' Tanais'' appears in ancient Greek sources as both the name of the river and of a city on it, situated in the Maeotian marshes. Greeks also called the river ''Iazartes'' (). Pliny gives the Scythian name of the Tanais as ''Silys''. According to an anonymous Greek source, which historically (but not certainly) has been attributed to
Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
, the Don was home to the legendary
Amazons In Greek mythology, the Amazons (Ancient Greek: Ἀμαζόνες ''Amazónes'', singular Ἀμαζών ''Amazōn'', via Latin ''Amāzon, -ŏnis'') are portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Hercule ...
of
Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...
. The area around the estuary has been speculated to be the source of the Black Death in the mid-14th century. While the lower Don was well known to ancient geographers, its middle and upper reaches were not mapped with any accuracy before the gradual conquest of the area by Muscovy in the 16th century. The Don Cossacks, who settled the fertile valley of the river in the 16th and 17th centuries, were named after the river. The fort of ''Donkov'' was founded by the princes of Ryazan in the late 14th century. The fort stood on the left bank of the Don, about from the modern town of
Dankov Dankov (russian: Данко́в) is a town and the administrative center of Dankovsky District in Lipetsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Don River northwest of Lipetsk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: It was previously known ...
, until 1568, when it was destroyed by the Crimean Tatars, but was soon restored at a better fortified location. It is shown as ''Donko'' in Mercator's ''Atlas'' (1596). Donkov was again relocated in 1618, appearing as ''Donkagorod'' in
Joan Blaeu Joan Blaeu (; 23 September 1596 – 21 December 1673) was a Dutch cartographer born in Alkmaar, the son of cartographer Willem Blaeu. Life In 1620, Blaeu became a doctor of law but he joined the work of his father. In 1635, they published ...
's map of 1645. Both Blaeu and Mercator follow the 16th-century cartographic tradition of letting the Don originate in a great lake, labeled ''Resanskoy ozera'' by Blaeu. Mercator follows Giacomo Gastaldo (1551) in showing a waterway connecting this lake (by Gastaldo labeled ''Ioanis Lago'', by Mercator ''Odoium lac. Iwanowo et Jeztoro'') to Ryazan and the Oka River. Mercator shows
Mtsensk Mtsensk (russian: Мценск) is a town in Oryol Oblast, Russia, located on the Zusha River (a tributary of the Oka) northeast of Oryol, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 28,000 (1970). History It was first mentioned ...
(''Msczene'') as a great city on this waterway, suggesting a system of canals connecting the Don with the
Zusha The Zusha (russian: Зуша) is a river in Tula and Oryol Oblast in Russia, a right tributary of the Oka. The length of the river is 234 km. The area of its basin is 6,950 km².Upa (''Uppa'') centered on a settlement ''Odoium'', reported as ''Odoium lacum'' (''Juanow ozero'') in the map made by Baron Augustin von Mayerberg, leader of an embassy to Muscovy in 1661. In modern literature, the Don region was featured in the work '' And Quiet Flows the Don'' by Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, a Nobel-prize winning writer from the stanitsa of Veshenskaya.


Dams and canals

At its easternmost point, the Don comes within of the
Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catch ...
. The Volga-Don Canal, 101 kilometres (65 mi), connects the two. It is a broad, deep waterway capable of transporting oil tanker size vessels. It is one of two which enables ships to depart the
Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central A ...
, the other, a series, connected to the
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
. The level of the Don where connected is raised by the Tsimlyansk Dam, forming the Tsimlyansk Reservoir. For the next below the Tsimlyansk Dam, the sufficient depth of the Don is maintained by the sequence of three dam-and-ship-lock complexes: the Nikolayevsky Ship Lock (Николаевский гидроузел), Konstantinovsk Ship Lock (Константиновский гидроузел), and the best known of the three, the Kochetovsky Ship Lock (Кочетовский гидроузел). The Kochetovsky Lock, built in 1914–19 and doubled in 2004–08, is downstream of the discharge of the Seversky Donets and upstream of Rostov-on-Don. It is at . This facility, with its dam, maintains a navigable head of water locally and into the lowermost stretch of the Seversky Donets. This is presently the last lock on the Don; below it, deep-draught navigation is maintained by dredging. In order to improve shipping conditions in the lower reaches of the Don, the waterway authorities support plans for one or two more low dams with locks. These will be in
Bagayevsky District Bagayevsky District (russian: Бага́евский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #340-ZS and municipalLaw #217-ZS district (raion), one of the forty-three in Rostov Oblast, Russia. It is located in the southwestern central part of the ob ...
and possibly
Aksaysky District Aksaysky District, or Aksay Region (russian: Акса́йский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #340-ZS and municipalLaw #240-ZS district (raion), one of the forty-three in Rostov Oblast, Russia. It is located in the western central part o ...
.Азово-Донской бассейн: Багаевский гидроузел – решение для Нижнего Дона
(The Azov Sea - Don Basin: the construction of the Bagayevsly Dam is the solution for the lower Don), Морские вести, No. 8, 2013


Tributaries

Main
tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drain ...
from source to mouth: * Nepryadva *
Krasivaya Mecha Krasivaya Mecha (russian: Краси́вая Ме́ча) is a river in Tula and Lipetsk oblasts in Russia. It is a right tributary of the Don, and is long, with a drainage basin of .Bystraya Sosna * Veduga * Voronezh * Tikhaya Sosna * Bityug * Osered * Chyornaya Kalitva *
Khopyor The Khopyor (, also transliterated as Khoper) is a river in European Russia, the biggest left tributary of the river Don.Х ...
– * Medveditsa *
Ilovlya Ilovlya (russian: Иловля) is an urban-type settlement and the administrative center of Ilovlinsky District, Volgograd Oblast, Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe ...
* Chir * Seversky Donets – ** Aidar – *
Sal Sal, SAL, or S.A.L. may refer to: Personal name * Sal (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname Places * Sal, Cape Verde, an island and municipality * Sal, Iran, a village in East Azerbaijan Province * Ca ...
* Manych * Aksay * Temernik


See also

* Don goat *'' And Quiet Flows the Don'' by
Mikhail Sholokov Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov ( rus, Михаил Александрович Шолохов, p=ˈʂoləxəf; – 21 February 1984) was a Russian novelist and winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is known for writing about life ...
* Rostov railway drawbridge


Footnotes


Explanatory


Sources


External links

* {{Authority control Book of Jubilees Geography of Southern Russia Rivers of Lipetsk Oblast Rivers of Rostov Oblast Rivers of Tula Oblast Rivers of Volgograd Oblast Rivers of Voronezh Oblast