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Don (river)

Coordinates:47°05′11″N39°14′19″E/ 47.08639°N 39.23861°E/47.08639; 39.23861
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, seeDon River (disambiguation).
Don
The Don inVoronezh Oblast.
Catchment of the Don
Native nameДон(Russian)
Location
CountryRussia
RegionTula Oblast,

Lipetsk Oblast,

Voronezh Oblast,

Volgograd Oblast,

Rostov Oblast
CitiesVoronezh,Rostov-on-Don
Physical characteristics
Source
• locationNovomoskovsk,Tula Oblast
• coordinates54°00′43″N38°16′41″E/ 54.01194°N 38.27806°E/54.01194; 38.27806
• elevation238 m (781 ft)
MouthSea of Azov
• location
Kagal'nik,Rostov Oblast
• coordinates
47°05′11″N39°14′19″E/ 47.08639°N 39.23861°E/47.08639; 39.23861
• elevation
0 m (0 ft)
Length1,870 km (1,160 mi)
Basin size425,600 km2(164,300 sq mi)
Discharge
• average935 m3/s (33,000 cu ft/s)
Basin features
Tributaries
• leftKhopyor
• rightSeversky Donets
Map

TheDon(Russian:Дон) is thefifth-longest riverin Europe. Flowing fromCentral Russiato theSea of AzovinSouthern Russia,it is one ofRussia's largest riversand played an important role for traders from theByzantine Empire.

Its basin is between theDnieper basinto the west, the lowerVolgabasin immediately to the east, and theOkabasin (tributary of the Volga) to the north. Native to much of the basin were Slavic nomads.[1]

The Don rises in the town ofNovomoskovsk60 kilometres (37 mi) southeast ofTula(in turn 193 kilometres (120 mi) south of Moscow), and flows 1,870 kilometres to theSea of Azov.The river's upper half meanders subtly south; however, its lower half consists of a great eastern curve, includingVoronezh,making its final stretch, anestuary,runwest south-west.The main city on the river isRostov-on-Don.Its main tributary is theSeversky Donets,centred on the mid-eastern end of Ukraine, thus the other country in the overall basin. To the east of a series of three great ship locks and associated ponds is the 101-kilometre (63 mi)Volga–Don Canal.

History

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The nameDoncould stem from theAvestanworddānu-( "river, stream" ).[2]According to theKurgan hypothesis,the Volga-Don river region was the homeland of theProto-Indo-Europeansaround 4,000 BC. The Don river functioned as a fertile cradle of civilization where the Neolithic farmer culture of the Near East fused with the hunter-gatherer culture of Siberian groups, resulting in the nomadic pastoralism of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.[3]The east Slavic tribe of theAntesinhabited the Don and other areas ofSouthernandCentral Russia.[4][5]The area around the Don was influenced by theByzantine Empirebecause the river was important for traders from Byzantium.[6]

In antiquity, the river was viewed as the border between Europe and Asia by some ancient Greek geographers.[7][8][9]In theBook of Jubilees,it is mentioned as being part of the border, beginning with its easternmost point up to its mouth, between the allotments of thesons of Noah,that ofJaphethto the north and that ofShemto the south.[10][note 1]During the times of the oldScythiansit was known inGreekas theTanaïs(Τάναϊς) and has been a major trading route ever since.Tanaisappears in ancient Greek sources as both the name of the river and of a city on it, situated in theMaeotian marshes.[note 2]Greeks also called the riverIazartes(Ἰαζάρτης).[12] Pliny gives the Scythian name of the Tanais asSilys.[13]

According to an anonymous Greek source, which historically (but not certainly) has been attributed toPlutarch,the Don was home to the legendaryAmazonsofGreek mythology.[14]

The area around the estuary has been speculated to be the source of theBlack Deathin the mid-14th century.[15]

While the lower Don was well known to ancient geographers, its middle and upper reaches were not mapped with any accuracy before the gradual conquest of the area by theTsardom of Russiain the 16th century.[citation needed]

TheDon Cossacks,who settled the fertile valley of the river in the 16th and 17th centuries, were named after the river.[16]

The fort ofDonkovwas founded by the princes ofRyazanin the late 14th century. The fort stood on the left bank of the Don, about 34 kilometres (21 mi) from the modern town ofDankov,until 1568, when it was destroyed by theCrimean Tatars,but was soon restored at a better fortified location. It is shown asDonkoinMercator'sAtlas(1596).[17] Donkov was again relocated in 1618, appearing asDonkagorodinJoan Blaeu's map of 1645.[18]

Both Blaeu and Mercator follow the 16th-century cartographic tradition of letting the Don originate in a great lake, labeledResanskoy ozeraby Blaeu. Mercator follows Giacomo Gastaldo (1551) in showing a waterway connecting this lake (by Gastaldo labeledIoanis Lago,by MercatorOdoium lac. Iwanowo et Jeztoro) to Ryazan and the Oka River. Mercator showsMtsensk(Msczene) as a great city on this waterway, suggesting a system of canals connecting the Don with theZusha(Schat) andUpa(Uppa) centered on a settlementOdoium,reported asOdoium lacum(Juanow ozero)[19]in the map made by BaronAugustin von Mayerberg,leader of an embassy to the Tsardom of Russia in 1661.

In modern literature, the Don region was featured in the workAnd Quiet Flows the DonbyMikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov,a Nobel-prize winning writer from thestanitsaofVeshenskaya.[20]

Dams and canals

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At its easternmost point, the Don comes within 100 kilometres (62 mi) of theVolga.TheVolga–Don Canal,101 kilometres (65 mi), connects the two. It is a broad, deep waterway capable of transporting oil tanker size vessels. It is one of two which enables ships to depart theCaspian Sea,the other, a series, connected to theBaltic Sea.The level of the Don where connected is raised by the Tsimlyansk Dam, forming theTsimlyansk Reservoir.

Don river in Voronezh Oblast

For the next 130 kilometres (81 mi) below the Tsimlyansk Dam, the sufficient depth of the Don is maintained by the sequence of three dam-and-ship-lock complexes: the Nikolayevsky Ship Lock (Николаевский гидроузел), Konstantinovsk Ship Lock (Константиновский гидроузел), and the best known of the three, the Kochetovsky Ship Lock (Кочетовский гидроузел). The Kochetovsky Lock, built in 1914–19 and doubled in 2004–08, is 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) downstream of the discharge of theSeversky Donetsand 131 kilometres (81 mi) upstream ofRostov-on-Don.It is at47°34′07″N40°51′10″E/ 47.56861°N 40.85278°E/47.56861; 40.85278.This facility, with its dam, maintains a navigable head of water locally and into the lowermost stretch of the Seversky Donets. This is presently the last lock on the Don; below it, deep-draught navigation is maintained by dredging.[21]

In order to improve shipping conditions in the lower reaches of the Don, the waterway authorities support plans for one or two more low dams with locks. These will be inBagayevsky Districtand possiblyAksaysky District.[22]

Tributaries

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Source of the Don inNovomoskovsk,Tula Oblast

Maintributariesfrom source to mouth:

See also

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Footnotes

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Explanatory

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  1. ^Later works, as the 7th-centuryT and O map,also depicts the Don as the border between Europe and Asia
  2. ^e.g.Strabo,Geographica[11]

Citations

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  1. ^Basilevsky 2016.
  2. ^Vasmer 1950,p.362: "Die Quelle ist avest.dānu-f. Fluß, Strom "
  3. ^Piazza & Cavalli-Sforza 2006.
  4. ^Yilmaz 2015,p. 228.
  5. ^Hamilton 1983,p. 2: "During the eighth and ninth centuries the Khazar state reached its greatest extent and power, and the Antes and Slavs of the lower Don and Azov region, the old As or Rus tribes, participated in the first of the empires to be established on Russian soil."
  6. ^Tellier 2009,p. 251: "In 1261, the Genoese concluded an alliance with the Byzantine Empire of Nicaea and succeeded to establish trading posts at two terminals of the Silk Road on the Black Sea: Kaffa, in Crimea, and Tana, on the Don River, which runs towards the Black Sea."
  7. ^Davies 1996,p.8.
  8. ^Jones 1924,p. 183: "Asia is adjacent to Europe, bordering thereon along the Tanaïs River."
  9. ^Jones 1924,p. 185: "...Tanaïs River, which I have taken as the boundary between Europe and Asia."
  10. ^Jubilees.
  11. ^Jones 1924,p. 191: "On the river and the lake is an inhabited city bearing the same name, Tanaïs."
  12. ^Suda.
  13. ^Rackham 1952,section 20.
  14. ^Goodwin 1874,chapter 14.
  15. ^Benedictow 2005.
  16. ^Chenchevyk 2013.
  17. ^Mercator 1595.
  18. ^Massa 1645.
  19. ^Ostromęcka-Frączak 1976,p. 108.
  20. ^Litus 2003.
  21. ^Waterway Administration 2012.
  22. ^Sea News 2013.

References

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  • Basilevsky, Alexander (2016-03-23).Early Ukraine: A Military and Social History to the Mid-19th Century.Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.ISBN978-0-7864-9714-0.OCLC898167561.
  • "iota, 5".Suda On Line: Byzantine Lexicography.
  • Pseudo-Plutarch (1874). Goodwin, William W. (ed.).De Fluviis.Press Of John Wilson and son.
  • Massa, Isaac(1645). "Russiæ, vulgo Moscovia, pars australis". In Blaeu, Willem; Blaeu, Joan (eds.).Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive Atlas Novus in quo Tabulæ et Descriptiones Omnium Regionum[Theater of the World, or a New Atlas of Maps and Representations of All Regions] – viaWikimedia Commons.
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