The Mari Depression () is a depression in Gornomariysky District,

Mari El Mari El,; ; officially the Mari El Republic, is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia. It is in the European Russia, European region of the country, along the northern bank of the Volga River, and administratively part of the Volga Federal ...

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Geography

The depression is located on the left side of the

Volga The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

, from the western borders of the

to the Bolshaya Kokshaga River. The average height of the depression is between and and there are many small lakes and swamps.Марийская низменность

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

in 30 vols. / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M, 1969-1978. The area is now partly flooded by the

Cheboksary Reservoir Cheboksary Reservoir is an artificial lake in the central part of the Volga River formed by the Cheboksary Dam in Novocheboksarsk. The surface area of Cheboksary Reservoir is , max width is , max depth is . The reservoir has partly flooded the Ma ...

, which dams the Volga.

Dunes

There are ancient

dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

covered with forests located between the rivers.

References

БСЭ: Марийская низменность
Landforms of Mari El East European Plain Depressions of Russia Dunes of Russia {{MariEl-geo-stub