Mures
Mures 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
- 45.94°, 22.87°
About Mures
The Mureș (Romanian: [ˈmureʃ]) or Maros (Hungarian: [ˈmɒroʃ]; German: Mieresch, Serbian: Мориш / Moriš) is a 789-kilometre-long (490 mi) river in Eastern Europe. Its drainage basin covers an area of 30,332 km2 (11,711 sq mi). It originates in the Hășmașu Mare Range in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, Romania, rising close to the headwaters of the river Olt, and joins the Tisza at Szeged in southeastern Hungary. In Romania, its length is 761 km (473 mi) and its basin size is 27,890 km2 (10,770 sq mi).
The Mureș River flows through the Romanian counties Harghita, Mureș, Alba, Hunedoara, Arad and Timiș, and the Hungarian county Csongrád. The largest cities on the Mureș/Maros are Târgu Mureș, Alba Iulia, Deva and Arad in Romania as well as Makó and Szeged in Hungary.
The Hungarian reaches of the Mureș/Maros are 73 km (45 mi) long as the state border. Some 28.5 km2 (11.0 sq mi) on the northern side of the river are protected as part of the Körös-Maros National Park. The Maros Floodplain Protected Area consists of gallery forests, floodplain meadows and 0.6 km2 (0.23 sq mi) of forest reserve near Szeged.
Salt used to be traded in medieval times on the river on large rafts.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Mureș (river) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Mures in Depth
History
Since ancient times, the Mureș River has been a heavily used waterway for both commercial traffic and strategic purposes, becoming a veritable highway for the area north of the Danube.
Ever since the Dacian-Roman wars, control of the Mureș River has been one of the key military maneuvers that the Roman army sought to achieve in order to gain an advantage over the defensive system of the Dacian Kingdom.
Thus, during the military operations at the beginning of Trajan's Second Dacian War, it is assumed that the vexillatio formed by the troops of Pannonia Inferior, led by Aelius Hadrianus (who would later become Emperor Hadrian), then governor of Pannonia, advanced deep into the heart of Dacia via the Mureș Valley, probably using the river fleet — the Classis Flavia Pannonica — as well.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Mureș (river) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Mures: Key Facts
| Length | 803 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 155 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 30,000 km² |
| Mouth | Tisza |
| Drainage system | Danube basin |
| Tributaries | Ormeniș River, Toplița River, Lechința River, Ampoi River, Gurghiu River, Arieș River, Abucea, Cerna River |
Facts from Wikidata Q207493 (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
Mures: Quick Answers
- Where is Mures?
- Mures is located in Romania and Hungary, at 45.9446° N, 22.8700° E.
- Are there dams on the Mures?
- No dam on the Mures is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.