Don
Don is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 49.98°, 40.80°
About Don
The Don (Russian: Дон) is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire.
Its basin is between the Dnieper basin to the west, the lower Volga basin immediately to the east, and the Oka basin (tributary of the Volga) to the north. Native to much of the basin were Slavic nomads.
The Don rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 kilometres (37 mi) southeast of Tula (in turn 193 kilometres (120 mi) south of Moscow), and flows 1,870 kilometres to the Sea of Azov. The river's upper half meanders subtly south; however, its lower half consists of a great eastern curve, including Voronezh, making its final stretch, an estuary, run west south-west. The main city on the river is Rostov-on-Don. Its main tributary is the Seversky 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 forms the 101-kilometre (63 mi) Volga–Don Canal.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Don (river) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Don in Depth
History
The name Don derives from the Avestan and Rigveda word dānu. According to the Kurgan hypothesis, the Volga-Don river region was the homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans around 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. The east Slavic tribe of the Antes inhabited the Don and other areas of Southern and Central Russia. The area around the Don was influenced by the Byzantine Empire because the river was important for traders from Byzantium.
In antiquity, the river was viewed as the border between Europe and Asia by some ancient Greek geographers.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Don (river) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Don: Key Facts
| Length | 1,870 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 935 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 422,000 km² |
| Source | Central Russian Upland |
| Mouth | Sea of Azov |
| Drainage system | Don basin |
| Tributaries | Voronezh, Bityug, Khopyor, Medveditsa, Ilovlya, Sal River, Manych, Krasivaya Mecha |
Facts from Wikidata Q1229 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Don: Quick Answers
- Where is Don?
- Don is located in Russia, at 49.9815° N, 40.8046° E.
- Are there dams on the Don?
- No dam on the Don is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.