It is not in vain that the Volga is considered one of the greatest rivers in the world, its length is 3, 530 km, and many European countries can envy the basin area of 1.3 million km². 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. Along the winding 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-flowing. Having reached the foothills of the Urals, near the city of Kazan, the channel abruptly turns south and, breaking through a chain of ridges, goes to the Caspian lowland. A huge delta forms at the confluence of the Caspian Sea.
The river system includes about 151 thousand diverse watercourses, the total length of which exceeds 574 thousand kilometers. 300 other smaller river flows flow into the river. Most of them flow into it on the segment from the source to the city of Kazan. It should be noted that there are much more left inflows than right inflows, and besides, they are also much more watery. 85 km from Kazan, the Kama flows into the river - the largest tributary of the Volga.
Who is more important: ancient Ra or Kama
A truly large and deepwater most important waterway of the European part of Russia becomes after the merger with Kama. Near the city of Togliatti, the dam of the Volga Hydroelectric Power Station, blocking the channel, forms a huge Kuibyshev reservoir. The largest left tributary of the Volga flows into this reservoir.
According to the main hydrological indicators, the main should be considered the Kama, and the Volga - its right tributary. The first observations of scientists, carried out as far back as 1875, showed that at the confluence, it carries 3100 m 3 of water per second in its channel, and Kama - 4300. It turns out that the Volga tributary is more full-flowing. This is explained by the fact that the main part of its basin is located in the taiga zone, where there is more precipitation than in other parts of the Volga basin.
There are several other signs by which the Kama River should be considered the main river. One of them - its source is located above the beginning of the Volga, and in geography this is a sign of supremacy. And in terms of the total number of tributaries, the great Russian river is inferior to the Kama.
And most importantly - Kama already existed at a time when the most famous Russian river did not exist. In the first half of the Quaternary, until the greatest glaciation, Kama, merging with Vishera, carried its waters along the ancient channel into the Caspian Sea.
But in the history of Russia and in its culture, the significance of the largest river in Europe is undeniably more significant. Therefore, Kama is a tributary of the Volga, and the point.
Preglacial river
Oka can also be considered the progenitor of the Volga, since its valley was formed even before the onset of the ice age. It begins on the Central Russian Upland, its source height 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 River is 1480 kilometers, and it is a typical plain river with a slope of an average of about 0.11 o / oo by the nature of the current. The largest right tributary of the Volga, according to the characteristics of the river valley and channel, is divided into upper and lower parts. Such famous rivers as Moscow, Moksha and Klyazma flow into the Oka.
