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The longest European river

The total length of the Volga is about 3530 km, and the areaThe basin of the longest river in Europe is 1360 thousand square meters. km. These dimensions are impressive, considering that the Volga basin is approximately the size of almost a third of the entire European territory of Russia.

The second largest river in Europe is the Danube. Its length is 2860 km.

The Volga originates in the Valdai Upland andruns through several regions and republics that are part of Russia. On the banks of the Volga are just four cities, whose population is more than a million inhabitants: Volgograd, Samara, Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod. Even at the dawn of the emergence of a single Russian state, the Volga was a means of communication between the northern and southern regions. It passed the way to the Caucasus and Central Asia. The Volga basin is formed by more than a hundred thousand keys, streams, small and very impressive rivers. About two hundred tributaries of the Volga are deep-water rivers, which supply the Volga abundantly with water. Kama and Oka are the main tributaries of the longest European river. The average depth of the river is 8-10 meters, but in some places the depth reaches up to eighteen meters. The Volga is located in the Tver region, at an altitude of more than two hundred meters. From the first kilometers of its long journey, the Volga does not at all resemble a majestic river. Here it is just a thin stream. Only after meeting with the river Selizharkovka Volga becomes a real and full-fledged waterway. Currently, the river has a number of reservoirs and several cascades of hydroelectric power stations.

Almost along its entire length the Volga is free for navigation.

Volga - the pride of Russia

The majestic European river is a favorite placerest of many Russians and guests of the country. On the banks of the river you can find a variety of holiday homes and sanatoriums, children's camps. On the Volga are organized fascinating cruises. Every day along the river there are hundreds of ships carrying cargoes and passengers. In its upper course the Volga freezes at the end of November, and a month later the bottom stream of the river is covered with ice. Near Astrakhan, the Volga is revealed in the middle of March. Thus, the river is free of ice cover for 7 months. As a source of energy for power stations, the waters of the Volga have been used since the thirties of the last century. Today, more than a third of the industrial potential of Russia and about half of the country's agricultural production are located in the basin of the river. It is not for nothing that the Volga is called "mother" and "wet-nurse" among the people.