Manych River

Manych
Manych River near Rostov-on-Don - Volgodonsk highway
Basin
River mouth	Don River
Basin size	35,400 km2 (13,700 sq mi)
Physical characteristics
Length	420 km (260 mi)

The Manych (Russian: Маныч) is a river in the Black Sea-Caspian Steppe of Southern Russia. It flows through the western and central part of the Kuma–Manych Depression.

A tributary of the Don, it is 420-kilometer (260 mi) long, with its current source at the mouth of the Kalaus River in the southwestern part of the Republic of Kalmykia. It flows through the town of Proletarsk and joins the Don River in Manychskaya, east of the city of Rostov-on-Don.

Along the Manych, going downstream, there are:

The Proletarsk Dam is sufficiently high to raise the water level in Lake Manych-Gudilo upstream from it, so in fact the lake has become part of the Proletarsk Reservoir. The three reservoirs (and Lake Manych-Gudilo) form an almost continuous chain, the original course of the river being almost entirely flooded by them. According to the calculations of the Russian geographer Alexander Bazelyuk, between Manych-Gudilo and the river mouth, merely 9.1 km of the length of the West Manych river remains in its original "river" (rather than reservoir form): 8.2 km from the Vesyolovsk Dam to the upper reaches of the Ust-Manych Reservoir, and 0.9 km from the Ust-Manych Dam to the river's fall into the Don.

Formerly, at least in periods of high water, the Manych River would flow in two directions. The Kalaus River, when reaching the Kuma–Manych Depression at 45°43′N 44°06′E / 45.717°N 44.100°E / 45.717; 44.100, would split. About 30% of the water would become the West Manych and flow northwest to, or toward, the Don River. The remaining water became the East Manych and flowed roughly southeast and dried up on the steppe before reaching the Caspian Sea. Sometime around 1970 a low dam was built which prevented any water from flowing into the East Manych. The East Manych is now fed by irrigation canals coming from the Kuma and Terek Rivers. See also List of unusual drainage systems.