The Luda Yana (, meaning "Crazy

Yana Yana may refer to: Locations *Yana, Burma, a village in Hkamti Township in Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of northwestern Burma * Yana, India, a village in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India * Yana, Nigeria, an administrative c ...

") is a 74 km-long river in southern

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, a left tributary of the river

Maritsa Maritsa or Maritza ( ), also known as Evros ( ) and Meriç ( ), is a river that runs through the Balkans in Southeast Europe. With a length of ,

. There are several version about the river's etymology. According to geographer

Pavel Deliradev Pavel ( Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian: Павел; Czech, Slovene, and (although Romanian also uses Paul); ; ; ) is a male given name. It is a Slavic cognate of the name Paul (derived from the Greek Pavlos). Pavel may refer to: People Given ...

, the name comes from a combination of its "crazy" flow after heavy rains and a Bulgarian maiden from the period of the Ottoman rule in Bulgaria named Yana, who according to local legend threw herself into the river rather than being forced into a marriage with a Turk. According to the linguist Stefan Mladenov, it is possible that the word "Yana" meant river in the ancient

Thracian The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between north-eastern Greece, ...

language. The Luda Yana takes its source at an altitude of 1,423 m near the western foothills of the summit of Bich (1,449 m) in the mountain range of

Sredna Gora Sredna Gora ( ) is a mountain range in central Bulgaria, situated south of and parallel to the Balkan Mountains and extending from the river Iskar (river), Iskar to the west and the elbow of river Tundzha north of the city of Yambol to the east. ...

. It flows in a southwestern direction in a deep valley and turns southwards a few kilometers upstream from the town of

Panagyurishte Panagyurishte (, also transliterated ''Panagjurište'', ) is a town in Pazardzhik Province, Southern Bulgaria, situated in a small valley in the Sredna Gora mountains. It is 91 km east of Sofia, 43 km north of Pazardzhik. The town is ...

. It then flows the eponymous valley and turns in a southeastern direction near the village of Bata. Close to the village of Rosen it enters the

Upper Thracian Plain The Upper Thracian Plain (, ''Gornotrakiyska nizina'') constitutes the northern part of the historical region of Thrace. It is located in southern Bulgaria, between Sredna Gora mountains to the north and west, a secondary mountain chain parallel ...

and flows in a wide sandy riverbed. It flows into the Maritsa at an altitude of 195 m north of the village of Sinitovo. Its drainage basin covers a territory of 685 km² or 1.3% of Maritsa's total and borders the drainage basins of the Topolnitsa to the north, west and southwest and the Pyasachnik and Potoka to the east, all of them left tributaries of the Maritsa. The Luda Yana has predominantly rain-snow feed with high water in March–June and low water in July–October. The average annual flow near the village of Sbor is 3.60 m³/s. The river flows entirely in

Pazardzhik Province Pazardzhik Province ( ''Oblast Pazardzhik'', former name Pazardzhik okrug) is a province in Southern Bulgaria, named after its administrative and industrial centre: the city of Pazardzhik. The territory is that is divided into 12 municipaliti ...

. There are six settlements along its course: the town of Panagyurishte and the village of Popintsi in

Panagyurishte Municipality Panagyurishte Municipality is located in the Pazardzhik Province, western Bulgaria. It is one of the 11 municipalities in the province. Its territory is 598,5 km² being fourth in the province after the municipalities of Velingrad, Batak, Bu ...

and the villages of Rosen, Chernogorovo, Krali Marko and Pishtigovo in Pazardzhik Municipality. A 16.4 km stretch of the second class II-37 road

Yablanitsa Yablanitsa (; also ''Jablanica'', ''Iablanica'', ''Yablanica'', ''Jablanitsa'', ''Iablanitsa'', ''Jablanitza'', ''Yablanitza'', ''Iablanitza'', ) is a small town in the westernmost part of Lovech Province, central-north Bulgaria, located in the a ...

–

Pazardzhik Pazardzhik ( ) is a city situated along the banks of the Maritsa river, southern Bulgaria. It is the centre of Pazardzhik Province and Pazardzhik Municipality. It is located in the Upper Thracian Plain and in the Pazardzhik-Plovdiv Field, a ...

–

Dospat Dospat () is a town in the very south of Bulgaria, part of Smolyan Province, situated in the Rhodope Mountains, close to Dospat Dam. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Dospat Municipality. As of December 2010, the town had a popul ...

follows the Luda Yana between Panagyurishte and Popintsi. The river's waters are utilised for irrigation and water supply of several of Panagyurishte's major factories, including Asarel Medet and Opticoelectron.

Citations

References

* {{cite book , ref={{harvid, Geographic Dictionary of Bulgaria, 1980 , title = Географски речник на България , trans-title = Geographic Dictionary of Bulgaria , last1 = Мичев (Michev) , first1 = Николай (Nikolay) , last2 = Михайлов (Mihaylov) , first2 = Цветко (Tsvetko) , last3 = Вапцаров (Vaptsarov) , first3 = Иван (Ivan) , last4 = Кираджиев (Kiradzhiev) , first4 = Светлин (Svetlin) , chapter = , year = 1980 , language = Bulgarian , publisher = Наука и култура (Nauka i kultura) , location = София (Sofia) , isbn = Rivers of Bulgaria Landforms of Pazardzhik Province