The Stryi () is a river in western Ukraine. It starts in the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...

and snakes through the mountains running for . After it passes

Stryi Stryi (, ; ) is a city in Lviv Oblast, western Ukraine. It is located in the left bank of the Stryi (river), Stryi River, approximately south of Lviv in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. It serves as the administrative center of Stryi R ...

. The river continues for another before joining the

Dniester The Dniester ( ) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and then through Moldova (from which it more or less separates the breakaway territory of Transnistria), finally discharging into the Black Sea on Uk ...

near

Khodoriv Khodoriv (, ; ) is a city in Stryi Raion, Lviv Oblast, western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Khodoriv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its population is approximately History The city was first mentioned in 1394. In m ...

Route

Stryi River at night near the village Hnizdychiv

The river starts in a catchment area above and in the foothills of the Eastern

Beskids The Beskids or Beskid Mountains (, , , (), ()) are a series of mountain ranges in the Carpathians, stretching from the Czech Republic in the west along the border of Poland with Slovakia up to Ukraine in the east. The highest mountain in the Be ...

range of the Carpathian Mountains close to the village of Mokhnate, flowing down the East facing flank of the range. From here it begins to grow, being joined by many tributaries on its way North, before flowing into a series of twists and turns through gorges. It exits the hills reaching a flat area around Turka, where there was an attempt at hydro electric generation and flood control. The river meanders through the hills to Pidhorodci where it meets another main tributary the Opir at Nyzhnye Synievydne. From here it begins to straighten, 3.5 km south east of the town, at the start of the Stryi valley where it flows in an almost straight line past Duliby and

and on to Zhydachiv. Here the river reaches a flat area and meanders wildly meeting the

on the Eastern side of the Zhydachiv town causing many

oxbow lake An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake or stream pool, pool that forms when a wide meander of a river is meander cutoff, cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. The word "oxbow" can also refer to a U-shaped bend in a river or stream, whether ...

Geology

The rocks in the area, known as the Stryi Depression, are arranged in three main layers. The river follows a natural fault line and is around an average of 60 feet wide, but is shallow at only an average of 10 feet deep in summer until its lower tracts where it reaches depths of 20 feet or more. The three layers of rocks types give the Stryi its unique form, in the upper tracts it flows through several areas of hard dense rocks and in between these through softer shales and alluvial deposits. As a consequence the river bed is mostly medium-sized rounded rocks and pebbles with islands of sand and rounded gravels in midstream in the middle and lower tracts.

Behaviour

The river is a popular destination for canoeing as it has many

rapids Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep stream gradient, gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Flow, gradient, constriction, and obstacles are four factors that are needed for a rapid t ...

in the upper tracts, as well as areas of beauty along its lower course. The river is noted for its quick and massive increases in both flow volume and speed during rain, which often cause bridges and the river itself to be impassable. This results in flooded roads and train lines which, in these mountainous areas, tend to be close to the river. This has quite an effect on transportation, even causing the halt of the Russian forces in the

first world war World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

on 8 July 1917 as they tried to drive the Germans from the

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

army out of the region. There have been attempts to use the river for generating Hydro-electric power, but at the present time there are no current plans to re-introduce their use. The name derives from the Scythian word "Str", meaning fast. Where the Opir and Stryi meet, there is a legend that the Ukrainian "Robin Hood", Oleksa Dovbush was wounded, and his blood stained the riverbank causing the red rocks that can be seen there today.

Historical significance

The Stryi was used as a northern barrier for the Russian Carpathian Front during the first world war. According to the New York Times Current History and Forum periodical, the river was at the edge of an area the Russian army was using to prevent the Austrian forces advance. "It was noted last week that the Russian line formed a huge crescent, the longer arc of which (and this was the Carpathian front) extended from Bartfeld north, then east along the Carpathian crests, north of Uzsok to a point on the Stryi River."

References

External links

Panoramio photographs
{{Authority control Rivers of Lviv Oblast