Daugava River

The Daugava in Riga with the Vanšu Bridge and Saules akmens skyscraper

The catchment area of the Daugava river

The Dvina in Vitebsk

The Dvina (Daugava ) in Riga ( 2010)

The Dvina ( Daugava Latvian, Belarusian Дзвіна / Dzvina; Russian Западная Двина / Sapadnaja Dvina ) is an opening in the Baltic Sea Descending, 1020 km long stream.

The Russian name Sapadnaja Dvina literally means "Western Dvina ", to distinguish it from the Northern Dvina. For Latvians, the Dvina is a national symbol and is among other things as "Mother Daugava " ( lett: Daugaviņa māmuliņa ) and " River of Destiny " sung.

Course

The river rises in the Valdai Hills near Russia on the Volga sources and flows shortly after its source through the Dwinjezsee. Then the Daugava flows initially southwest and after - Vitebsk - along the Belarusian ridge in western direction through northern Belarus. Then it reaches the southeastern region of Latvia, there flows through Dvinsk and then northwest to the Gulf of Riga, where it flows into the Baltic in Riga district Daugavgrīva. The length of the territory of Latvia is 357 km. The Daugava River is navigable to a great extent.

Tributaries

(Selection, each downstream sorted )

On the left side:

• Welessa
• Mesha
• Kasplja
• Ula
• Uschatscha
• Dysna

Right side:

• Toropa
• Uswjatscha
• Obal
• Dryssa
• Dubna
• Aiviekste
• Ogre
• Pērse

Word origin

The Latvian and Lithuanian name Daugava was of philologists ( August Bielenstein, Ernest Bleser, Jānis Endzelīns etc.) attributed to the stem " daudz " and " ūdens " and originally meant as " large water" or "strong power ". According to the philologist Konstantīns Karulis the root word Dyna was used in the Latvian language originally and was ousted from the 14th to the 17th century gradually from the present name.

History

In ancient writings, as in the Geographike Hyphegesis of Claudius Ptolemy, is a river called Rhubon (also Rhudon; Gr. Ῥούβωνος ἐκβ ) above, which is sometimes equated to the history research with the Daugava River, from other authors but also with the Memel.