The Ardon (, , ''Ærydon'') is a river in

North Ossetia–Alania North Ossetia–Alania (; ), officially the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania, is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. It borders the country of Georgia (country), Georgia to the south, a ...

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 ...

, a left tributary of the Terek.Ардон (река на Кавказе)

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 ...

It flows north and somewhat east to join the Terek northwest of Vladakavkaz. Its main tributary is the Fiagdon which parallels it on the east and joins it near its mouth. The length of the Ardon is 102 km, the area of its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

is 2700 km². The Ardon originates in the

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s of the

Greater Caucasus The Greater Caucasus, ''Didi K’avk’asioni''; is the major mountain range of the Caucasus Mountains. It stretches for about from west-northwest to east-southeast, from the Taman Peninsula of the Black Sea to the Absheron Peninsula of t ...

. The

Ossetian Military Road The Ossetian Military Road (, — ''Wælladžyry fændag'', ka, ოსეთის სამხედრო გზა) was constructed between 1854 and 1889, by the Russian Empire in the Caucasus. The road runs through the Rioni and Ardon river ...

crossed the valley of the Ardon. The Ardon River is formed from the confluence of the Mamisondon, Nardon, Adaykom, and Tsmiakomdon rivers, which are sourced from the glaciers of the Main Caucasian Range. It flows through the North Ossetian Reserve, passing through the deep Alagir Gorge and the Transcaucasian Highway before reaching the Ossetian plain. The Alagir Gorge is also home to the Sadon deposit of lead-zinc ores, as well as villages like Buron, Sadon, Upper Zgid, and Mizur. Once the river enters the plain near the city of Alagir, its waters are used for irrigation purposes. The city of Ardon is located 7 km from the confluence of the Ardon and Terek rivers, and the Ardon River receives its largest right tributary, the Fiagdon, near the mouth. Along a section of the river with a length of 16 km from the village of Nizhniy Zaramag to the confluence of the Baddon River, there is a cascade of operating Zaramag hydropower plants, including the Golovnaya HPP with a capacity of 15 MW and the Zaramagskaya HPP-1 with a capacity of 346 MW. There are plans to build the Zaramagskaya HPP-2 with a capacity of 72.9 MW, and earlier plans for the construction of the Zaramag HPP-3 (Tamisk) with a capacity of 46 MW have been made. Terek

References

Rivers of North Ossetia–Alania {{NorthCaucasus-river-stub