Kelkit
Kelkit 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
- 40.28°, 37.90°
About Kelkit
The Kelkit River (Turkish: Kelkit Irmağı or Kelkit Çayı), is a river in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. It is the longest tributary of the Yeşilırmak. Its name derives from the Armenian Gayl get (Armenian: Գայլ գետ 'wolf river', Kayl ked in Western Armenian pronunciation). Its Greek name is Lykos (Greek: Λύκος), also meaning 'wolf', and romanized as Lycus.
It rises in Gümüşhane Province and runs through the provinces of Erzincan, Giresun, Sivas, and Tokat before flowing into the Yeşilırmak at the modern village of Kızılçubuk, near the site of the ancient city of Eupatoria. The Kelkit follows the North Anatolian Fault for about 150 km from Suşehri to Resadiye and Niksar.
In Hellenistic times, a major east-west road following the valley of the Kelkit led from Armenia Minor to Bithynia.
It was the site of the Battle of the Lycus in 66 BCE.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Kelkit River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Kelkit: Key Facts
| Length | 356 km |
|---|---|
| Drainage basin | 10,600 km² |
| Mouth | Yeşilırmak River |
Facts from Wikidata Q3045328 (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
Kelkit: Quick Answers
- Where is Kelkit?
- Kelkit is located in Turkey, at 40.2787° N, 37.9025° E.
- Are there dams on the Kelkit?
- No dam on the Kelkit is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.