Baksan River

BW

The Baksan (Russian Баксан, Karachay- Balkar Басхан ) is a 173 km long right tributary of the Malka in the North Caucasus Republic of Kabardino -Balkaria in Russia.

Course

The Baksan entfließt at an altitude of about 2800 m the Great Asau Glacier on the southern slope of Mount Elbrus. He circles the mountain range on the south side and then turns in a northeasterly direction. First, it flows through a narrow mountainous part, breaks through the Skalisty comb ( " rocky ridge " ) of the Greater Caucasus and reached above the eponymous town of Baksan the level where it branches into several branches ( the most significant addition to the main arm are Baksanjonok and Geduko ). After almost another 50 km to the east of the Baksan opens at the south-eastern outskirts of Prochladny in the Terek Creek Malka. At the confluence of the Baksan is significantly higher water content than Malka (on average by more than five times ).

The catchment area of ​​6800 km ² comprises Baksan. The main tributaries are Tschegem and Urwan from the right and from the left Gundelen.

Use and infrastructure

The Baksan is not navigable. Its water is used for irrigation in the lower reaches of agricultural land. For this purpose is derived from the Baksan Baksan on the Malka - channel water towards the Malka.

In the city of Baksan is on a river a small hydroelectric power plant, the Baksan hydroelectric power plant ( Baksanskaja GES ) with an initial capacity of 25 MW, 27 MW today. It was built in 1930-1939 and is among the oldest in Russia. After being destroyed in World War II, the full operation in 1946 resumed. As a part of the technique has been in use since the construction of the power plant, since 2007 worked the current operator, the Kabardino- Balkar branch of RusHydro, on its reconstruction. The works were thrown back by a terrorist attack that in July 2010, had considerable damage to the system result. In December 2012, the power plant could be put back into operation.

In the city of Baksan river and from the M29 highway Rostov-on- Don is crossed to the Azerbaijani border; there branches off the A158 to the skiing and alpine center below the Elbrus from the upstream to the river follows almost to its origin and thereby crossed it several times.