The Aktash () is a
river
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...
in the
Kasbek and
Khasavyurt
Khasavyurt is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Dagestan, Russia. Population:
History
It was founded in 1846 and granted town status in 1931. During the Russian Empire, the settlement was the administrative capital of the Khas ...
districts of the
Republic of Daghestan in
Caucasian
Caucasian may refer to:
Common meanings
*Anything from the Caucasus region or related to it
** Ethnic groups in the Caucasus
** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus re ...
Russia
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 ...
. It is long, with its width varying from 1.5 meters (5 ft) to . It has an overall slope of 14%. Its watershed is .
Name
Aktash derives from the
Turkic ''ak-'' ("
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
") and ''taş'' ("
stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
").
History
The river's basin was settled by the
Mountain Cossacks from the 1520s. The
Don Cossacks
Don Cossacks (, ) or Donians (, ), are Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don River (Russia), Don. Historically, they lived within the former Don Cossack Host (, ), which was either an independent or an autonomous democratic rep ...
arrived under
Andrei Shadrin in the late 1570s, founding
Andreyevo (present-day
Endirey
Endirey (; OKATO: 82254815001) is a village#Russia, village (''selo'') in the Khasavyurt District of the Republic of Dagestan in Russia. It is the center of the Endireyskoe Rural Settlement and has a population of 7,863 (2015). Endirey is an imp ...
). The two groups eventually formed the
Terek Cossacks
The Terek Cossack Host was a Cossack host created in 1577 from free Cossacks who resettled from the Volga to the Terek River. The local aboriginal Terek Cossacks joined this Cossack host later. In 1792 it was included in the Caucasus Line Co ...
. The mountainous area of the river was depopulated in 1877 by the Russian Adjutant-General
Svistunov to prevent possible uprisings in support of
Alibek Haji.
Diversion of the river for
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...
now means that it usually does not reach the
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...
during the summer months.
Tributaries
Major tributaries include:
[
* Tsyrkikal
* Salasu
* Yaryksu
* Aksay
]
See also
* Other places named Aktash or Aktaş
References
Citations
Bibliography
* .
* {{citation , editor-last=Zonn , editor-first=Igor S. , editor2-last=Kosarev , editor2-first=Aleksey N. , editor3-last=Glantz , editor3-first=Michael , editor4-last=Kostianoy , editor4-first=Andrey G. , display-editors=1 , ref={{harvid, Zonn, 2010 , contribution=Aktash , contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fvqYSoRvAI4C&pg=PA10 , p=10 , title=The Caspian Sea Encyclopedia , isbn=978-3-642-11523-3 , doi=10.1007/978-3-642-11524-0 , publisher=Springer-Verlag , location=Berlin , date=2010 .
Rivers of Dagestan