Vistula
The Vistula (/ˈvɪstjʊlə/; Polish: Wisła, Polish pronunciation: [ˈviswa] ⓘ, German: Weichsel) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at 1,047 kilometres (651 miles) in length.[1][2] Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers 193,960 km2 (74,890 sq mi), of which 168,868 km2 (65,200 sq mi) is in Poland.[3]
"Visla" redirects here. For the dog breed, see Vizsla. For other uses, see Vistula (disambiguation).Vistula
Wisła (Polish)
1,106 m (3,629 ft)
Mikoszewo, Gdańsk Bay, Baltic Sea,
Przekop channel near Świbno, Poland
0 m (0 ft)
1,047 km (651 mi)
193,960 km2 (74,890 sq mi)
1,080 m3/s (38,000 cu ft/s)
The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in the south of Poland, 1,220 meters (4,000 ft) above sea level in the Silesian Beskids (western part of Carpathian Mountains), where it begins with the White Little Vistula (Biała Wisełka) and the Black Little Vistula (Czarna Wisełka).[4]
It flows through Poland's largest cities, including Kraków, Sandomierz, Warsaw, Płock, Włocławek, Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Świecie, Grudziądz, Tczew and Gdańsk. It empties into the Vistula Lagoon (Zalew Wiślany) or directly into the Gdańsk Bay of the Baltic Sea with a delta of six main branches (Leniwka, Przekop, Śmiała Wisła, Martwa Wisła, Nogat and Szkarpawa).
The river has many associations with Polish culture, history and national identity. It is Poland's most important waterway and natural symbol, flowing notably through Kraków and the capital Warsaw, and the phrase "Country upon Vistula" (Polish: kraj nad Wisłą) can be synonymous with Poland.[5][6][7] Historically, the river was also important for the Baltic and German (Prussian) peoples.
The Vistula has given its name to the last glacial period that occurred in northern Europe, approximately between 100000 and 10000 BC, the Weichselian glaciation.
Etymology[edit]
The name Vistula first appears in the written record of Pomponius Mela (3.33) in AD 40. Pliny in AD 77 in his Natural History names the river Vistla (4.81, 4.97, 4.100). The root of the name Vistula is often thought to come from Proto-Indo-European *weys-: 'to ooze, flow slowly' (cf. Sanskrit अवेषन् (avēṣan) "they flowed", Old Norse veisa "slime"), and similar elements appear in many European river-names (e.g. Svislach (Berezina), Svislach (Neman), Weser, Viešinta).[8]
In writing about the river and its peoples, Ptolemy uses Greek spelling: Ouistoula. Other ancient sources spell the name Istula. Ammianus Marcellinus referred to the Bisula (Book 22) in the 380s. In the sixth century Jordanes (Getica 5 & 17) used Viscla.
The Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith refers to the Wistla.[9] The 12th-century Polish chronicler Wincenty Kadłubek Latinised the river's name as Vandalus, a form presumably influenced by Lithuanian vanduõ 'water'. Jan Długosz (1415–1480) in his Annales seu cronicae incliti regni Poloniae contextually points to the river, stating "of the eastern nations, of the Polish east, from the brightness of the water the White Water...so named" (Alba aqua),[10] perhaps referring to the White Little Vistula (Biała Wisełka).
In the course of history the river has borne similar names in different languages: German: Weichsel pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯ksl̩] ⓘ, Low German: Wießel, Dutch: Wijsel, Yiddish: ווייסל Yiddish pronunciation: [vajsl̩] and Russian: Висла.
Sources[edit]
The Vistula rises in the southern Silesian Voivodeship close to the tripoint involving the Czech Republic and Slovakia from two sources: the Czarna ("Black") Wisełka at altitude 1,107 m (3,632 ft) and the Biała ("White") Wisełka at altitude 1,080 m (3,540 ft).[11] Both are on the western slope of Barania Góra in the Silesian Beskids in Poland.[12]
Geography[edit]
The Vistula can be divided into three parts: upper, from its sources to Sandomierz; central, from Sandomierz to the confluences with the Narew and the Bug; and bottom, from the confluence with the Narew to the sea.
The Vistula river basin covers 194,424 square kilometres (75,068 square miles) (in Poland 168,700 square kilometres (65,135 square miles)); its average altitude is 270 metres (886 feet) above sea level. In addition, the majority of its river basin (55%) is 100 to 200 m above sea level; over 3⁄4 of the river basin ranges from 100 to 300 metres (328 to 984 feet) in altitude. The highest point of the river basin is at 2,655 metres (8,711 feet) (Gerlach Peak in the Tatra mountains). One of the features of the river basin of the Vistula is its asymmetry—in great measure resulting from the tilting direction of the Central European Lowland toward the northwest, the direction of the flow of glacial waters, and considerable predisposition of its older base. The asymmetry of the river basin (right-hand to left-hand side) is 73–27%.
The most recent glaciation of the Pleistocene epoch, which ended around 10,000 BC, is called the Vistulian glaciation or Weichselian glaciation in regard to north-central Europe.[13]
Biała Wisełka
Vistula in northern Poland
"Vistula Shore" painted by Bogdan Cierpisz in 1898, oil on canvas
The history of the River Vistula and its valley spans over 2 million years. The river is connected to the geological period called the Quaternary, in which distinct cooling of the climate took place. In the last million years, an ice sheet entered the area of Poland eight times, bringing along with it changes of reaches of the river. In warmer periods, when the ice sheet retreated, the Vistula deepened and widened its valley. The river took its present shape within the last 14,000 years, after the complete recession of the Scandinavian ice sheet from the area. At present, along with the Vistula valley, erosion of the banks and collecting of new deposits are still occurring.[20]
As the principal river of Poland, the Vistula is also in the centre of Europe. Three principal geographical and geological land masses of the continent meet in its river basin: the Eastern European Plain, Western Europe, and the Alpine zone to which the Alps and the Carpathians belong. The Vistula begins in the Carpathian mountains. The run and character of the river were shaped by ice sheets flowing down from the Scandinavian peninsula. The last ice sheet entered the area of Poland about 20,000 years ago. During periods of warmer weather, the ancient Vistula, "Pra-Wisła", searched for the shortest way to the sea—thousands of years ago it flowed into the North Sea somewhere at the latitude of contemporary Scotland. The climate of the Vistula valley, its plants, animals, and its very character changed considerably during the process of glacial retreat.[21]
[edit]
The Vistula is navigable from the Baltic Sea to Bydgoszcz (where the Bydgoszcz Canal joins the river). The Vistula can accommodate modest river vessels of CEMT class II. Farther upstream the river depth lessens. Although a project was undertaken to increase the traffic-carrying capacity of the river upstream of Warsaw by building a number of locks in and around Kraków, this project was not extended further, so that navigability of the Vistula remains limited. The potential of the river would increase considerably if a restoration of the east–west connection via the Narew–Bug–Mukhovets–Pripyat–Dnieper waterways were considered. The shifting economic importance of parts of Europe may make this option more likely.
The Vistula is the northern part of the proposed E40 waterway, continuing eastward into the Bug River, linking the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.[22][23]
