The Volga is one of the largest rivers on the planet and the largest river in Europe. It flows in the European part of Russia and has a length of 3,530 kilometers, as well as a basin area of 1,360 thousand square kilometers. The Volga has many tributaries, channels and small rivulets - which of them are the largest?
Volga geography
The Volga takes its origin at the Valdai Upland (height 228 meters), it flows into the basin of the Caspian Sea. The mouth of the river is below ocean level - almost 28 meters, and the height of its total fall is 256 meters. In total, the Volga has 200 tributaries, the left of which is much more abundant and more numerous than the right. The river system of the Volga basin includes 151 thousand streams in the form of rivers, streams and temporary tributaries, the total length of which is 574 thousand kilometers. The river basin extends from the western (Central Russian and Valdai) uplands to the eastern Urals.
At the Saratov latitude, the Volga basin sharply narrows and further flows from Kamyshin to the Caspian Sea without any tributaries. The main feeding part of the Volga river catchment area is the largest watercourse located in the forest zone extending to Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod. The middle part of the giant Volga basin flows through the forest-steppe zone, extending to Saratov and Samara, and its lower part flows to Volgograd in the steppe zone.
The main tributaries of the Volga
The Volga is conventionally divided into upper, middle and lower parts. The upper one flows from the source to the mouth of the Oka River, the middle one - from the place where the Oka flows into it and to the mouth of the Kama, the lower one - from the confluence of the Kama River to the Caspian Sea basin. The largest tributaries of the Volga in its upper reaches are Selizharovka (36 kilometers long), Darkness (142 kilometers long), Tvertsa (188 kilometers long), Mologa (456 kilometers long), Sheksna (139 kilometers long) and Unzha (426 kilometers long) …
After the construction of the Kuibyshev reservoir, the border between the lower and middle Volga was the Zhigulevskaya hydroelectric power station.
The largest tributaries of the Volga in the middle reaches are the Sura (length 841 kilometers), Vetluga (length 889 kilometers) and Sviyaga (length 375 kilometers). In the lower reaches of the river flow such large tributaries as Sok (364 kilometers long), Samara (594 kilometers long), Bolshoi Irgiz (675 kilometers long) and Eruslan (278 kilometers long). In total, there are about 500 different tributaries, small rivulets and channels in the Volga delta, the largest of which are the Old Volga, Kamyzyak, Bakhtemir, Akhtub, Buzan and Bolda. The river has a huge economic potential and irrigates many areas on its way that need additional recharge.