The Volga is older than the river itself

The Volga is not for nothing considered one of the world's greatest rivers, its length is 3530 km, and the area of the basin of 1.3 million km² can envy many European countries. In ancient times it was known as Ra, in the Middle Ages it was called Itil.

The beginning takes among the marshy lakes of the Valdai Upland. On a meandering valley, moving from west to east, it flows through the Central Russian Upland. Each new tributary of the Volga, merging with it, makes it more and more full of water. Having reached the foothills of the Urals, near the city of Kazan, the channel turns abruptly to the south and, making its way through a chain of ridges, reaches the Caspian lowland. At the confluence of the Caspian Sea , a huge delta is formed.

The river system includes about 151 thousand various watercourses, the total length of which exceeds 574 thousand kilometers. In the river, 300 other smaller streams flow in the length. Most of them emerge into it on a stretch from the source to the city of Kazan. It should be noted that the left tributaries are much larger than the right tributaries, and besides they are much more abundant. At 85 km from Kazan, Kama flows into the river - the largest tributary of the Volga.

Who is more important: the ancient Ra or Kama

The really big and deep water is the most important waterway in the European part of Russia after merging with the Kama. Near the city of Togliatti, the dam of the Volzhskaya HPP, covering the channel, forms a huge Kuibyshev reservoir. The largest left tributary of the Volga flows into this pond.

According to the main hydrological indices, the main one should be considered Kama, and the Volga - its right tributary. The first observations of scientists, conducted as far back as 1875, showed that in the place of confluence it carries in its bed 3100 m ³ water per second, and Kama - 4300. It turns out that the influx of the Volga is more full. This is explained by the fact that the bulk of its basin is located in the taiga zone, where precipitation falls more than in the rest of the Volga Basin.

There are a few other signs that the main river should be considered Kama. One of them - its source is located above the beginning of the Volga, and in geography this is a sign of primacy. And according to the total number of tributaries the great Russian river is inferior to Kama.

And most importantly - Kama existed at the time when the most famous Russian river was not yet. In the first half of the Quaternary period, up to the largest glaciation of Kama, merging with Vishera, carried its waters along an ancient bed to the Caspian Sea.

But in the history of Russia and in its culture the importance of the largest river of Europe is unquestionably more weighty. Therefore Kama is a tributary of the Volga, and a point.

The river of the pre-glacial period

Oka can also be considered the ancestor of the Volga, since its valley was formed even before the onset of the glacial period. It starts on the Central Russian Upland, the height of its source is 226 m. It flows into the main river near the city of Nizhny Novgorod. The area of its basin is 245,000 km ² . The length of the Oka is 1,480 kilometers, and it is by the nature of the current a typical lowland river with an average gradient of about 0.11 ° / _°° . The largest right tributary of the Volga in the features of the river valley and riverbed is divided into upper and lower parts. In the Oka river flows such famous rivers as Moscow, Moksha and Klyazma.