The Mukhavets River in Belarus is the largest tributary of the Western Bug in the country. A description of this river, as well as a list of cities located on it, can be found in this article.
Mukhavets River in Belarus: Description
The river is the right tributary of the Western Bug - the largest river system in Eastern Europe. Mukhavets is a river that is completely located within the Brest region of the Republic of Belarus. It is small, its length is only 113 kilometers. The river collects its waters from an area of 6350 square kilometers.
Where does the Mukhavets river begin in Belarus? The description of the watercourse should begin with this aspect.
The source of the Mukhavets is located near the city of Pruzhany, where the Mucha stream merges with the Vets canal. Mukhavets is a river that flows completely within the plain of Polesie, so the magnitude of its fall, as well as the slope, is very small. So, the difference between the source point and the mouth of the Mukhavets is only 29 meters.
The largest tributaries of the Mukhavets include Zhabinka, Dakhlovka, Trostyanitsa, Osipovka, as well as Rita. Mukhavets flows into the Western Bug within the famous city of Brest.
The river valley of Mukhavets extends from 400 meters in the upper reaches to two kilometers in the lower. The floodplain of the river is swampy in places, and its channel is artificially straightened and turned into a canal. In addition, through the Dnieper-Bug channel, Mukhavets has a connection with the river of the Dnieper basin - Pripyat.
The first hydrological studies of the river were carried out only in the 20s of the twentieth century. The maximum water level in Mukhavets is observed at the end of March, immediately after the autopsy. The river freezes, as a rule, in the first half of December.
Coastal characteristics
Mukhavets is a river, characterized by low banks (their height does not exceed two meters), sometimes steep. The slopes of the river valley are flat, which contributes to their active waterlogging. The entire southern and southeastern part of the river basin is occupied by lowland marshes, although some of them are drained today. At the same time, there are few lakes on the shores of Mukhovets (no more than 2% of the territory).
Cities and outstanding monuments on the river
Only three cities are located on Mukhavets: Kobrin, Zhabinka and Brest. And where the mouth of the river is located, an outstanding monument of the history and architecture of Belarus - the Brest Fortress - has been preserved.
Of the recreational facilities on the river there are several sanatoriums and health centers. In addition, the name of the river is a hockey club from the town of Pruzhany.
Brest Fortress
The fortress is located near the mouth of the Mukhavets River. Its construction began in the 30s of the XIX century and continued, in fact, until 1914. At the initial stage, the civil engineer Karl Opperman led the construction work.
In 1921, according to the Riga Peace Treaty, the Brest Fortress passed to the Poles. And in September 1939, after the first battle for Brest, the stronghold and the city itself became part of the USSR.
But the Brest Fortress went down in history thanks to the heroic defense in June 1941. This was the first serious battle between the Nazis and the Red Army of the USSR. The forces were unequal: the troops of the Third Reich in this battle were almost double the number of Soviet troops. However, the fortress held the defense for nine days, according to the recollections of one Austrian soldier who took part in that battle, "it is not clear at the expense of what."
In the early 70s, a magnificent memorial complex was created in the fortress in memory of those important events.
