Kir (river)

Ottoman bridge Ura e Mesit over the dry riverbed of the church here

The church is a mountain river in northern Albania. It drains the designated as Dukagjin southwestern part of the Albanian Alps, covering a total area of 261 km ². The river is 52 km long. It rises in the heart of the Albanian Alps south of the Biga e Gimajive and flows on the southern outskirts of Shkodra in the Drin, not a mile before it empties into the Buna.

The source stream flows on the first three kilometers to the southwest. After the church, several canyons followed by cutting, in its upper reaches to the village Prekal mainly to the south, then to the southwest. Five kilometers northeast of Shkodra in the plane enters the church from out of the mountains. In this area around the famous Ottoman bridge Ura e Mesit he falls often dry. About this bridge crossed an old caravan road from Shkoder through Cukali - Bergland to Kosovo. As a result, the flow Shkodra happened on the eastern and southern suburbs and then flows south of the castle Rozafa in the Drin. Around 1750, the church, who previously led directly to the Shkodra Lake, its course changed on the route today. As 1858, the Drin changed its course, the children no longer led directly into the Buna, but in the Drin.

In the upper church valley there are numerous villages, but are not on the river, but on the slopes or on ridges. In the lower valley the church a few villages such as Prekal and Ura e Shtrënjta lie but the valley floor on the water. The Kir valley leads up a simple track that goes over a 1,200 -meter-high pass into the easternmost valley of the Shala.

The church is over large portions for kayaking.