Morava River, Serbia
| Great Morava (Велика Морава/Velika Morava) |
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|---|---|
View from Lapovo
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| Country |
 Serbia
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| Physical characteristics | |
| Main source | Stalać, central Serbia, from West Morava and South Morava |
| River mouth | Danube, east of Smederevo, Serbia |
| Length | 185 km (115 mi) (with the West Morava: 493 km or 306 mi) |
| Discharge |
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| Basin features | |
| Progression | Danube→ Black Sea |
| Basin size | 37,444 km2 (14,457 sq mi) |
The Great Morava (Serbian: Велика Морава/Velika Morava, pronounced [vêlikaː mɔ̌rava]) is the final section of the Morava (Serbian Cyrillic: Морава), a major river system in Serbia.
The Velika ("Great") Morava begins at the confluence of the South Morava and the West Morava, located near the small town of Stalać, a major railway junction in central Serbia. From there to its confluence with the Danube northeast of the city of Smederevo, the Velika Morava is 185 km long. With its longer branch, the West Morava, it is 493 km long. The South Morava, which represents the natural headwaters of the Morava, used to be longer than the West Morava, but due to the regulations of river bed and melioration, it is shorter nowadays.
At one time (regulations were made on all three branches making them shorter) the Morava was over 600 km long. Today, the most distant water source in the Morava watershed is the source of the Ibar River, the right and longest tributary of the Zapadna Morava, originating in Montenegro, which gives the Ibar-West Morava-Great Morava river system a length of 550 km, which still makes it the longest waterway in the Balkan Peninsula.
The drainage basin of the Velika Morava is 6,126 km², and of the whole Morava system is 37,444 km² (of that, 1,237 km² are in Bulgaria and 44 km² are in the Republic of Macedonia), which covers 42,38% of Serbia. Velika Morava flows through the most fertile and densely populated area of Central Serbia, called the Morava river valley or Pomoravlje. Pomoravlje was formed in a fossil bay of a vast, ancient Pannonian Sea which dried out 200,000 years ago. Through about half of its length it passes through beautiful Bagrdan gorge (Bagrdanska klisura). In past centuries, it was known for its seemingly endless forests, but there is almost nothing left today of those old woods. It flows into the Danube between the villages of Kulič & Dubravica, in the coal mining basin of Kostolac, one of two major mines in its drainage basin (the other one being Resava coal basin, in valley of the Velika Morava's right tributary Resava). The average discharge of the Velika Morava on its confluence with Danube is 255 m³/s (120 m³/s brought by Zapadna Morava, 100 m³/s by Južna Morava, and 35 m³/s amounted by the Velika Morava itself).
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Wikipedia