'Desna' () is a
river in
Russia and
Ukraine, left
tributary of the
Dnieper. The word means "right hand" in the
Old East Slavic language. Its length is 1,130 km (702 mi), and its drainage basin covers 88,900 km².
In Ukraine, the river's width ranges from 60 to 250
meters, with its average depth being 3 m (10 ft). The mean annual discharge at its mouth is 360 m³/s (12,713 ft³/s). The river freezes over from early December to early April, and is navigable from
Novhorod-Siverskyi its mouth, which totals about 535 km.
Geography
Course
The Desna River originates in the Smolensk Heights of
Smolensk Oblast,
Russia. The river's source lies eastsoutheast from the city of
Smolensk and not far from
Yelnya in a forest near the village of Naleti. The Desna then flows south through a low and swampy valley toward the city of
Bryansk, where the river's right bank rises.
After its confluence with the
Seim River near the Russian-Ukrainian border, the river then widens, splitting into numerous smaller branches. Its right bank declines again near the city of
Chernihiv, and again near one of its tributaries, the
Oster, where the Desna continues its course through a low, muddy plain until it finally reaches its mouth near
Kiev at the Dnieper River.
Tributaries
The Desna has 18 right and 13 left tributaries. The most significant are:
Cities and towns on the Desna
The
Svensky Monastery is located at the confluence of the Desna and the
Svin River.
See also
★
List of rivers of Russia
★
List of rivers of Ukraine
External links
★
Desna River at the
Encyclopedia of Ukraine
★
Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary — Desna, tributary of the Dnepr
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