Pripyat River

Pripyat River
Map displaying the passage of the river through southern Belarus through the cities of Mazyr, Pinsk and Brest
Origin	Ukraine
Mouth	Dnieper
Basin countries	Ukraine, Belarus
Length	761 km (473 mi)
Source elevation
Avg. discharge	377 m3/s
Basin area	121,000 km2 (47,000 sq mi)
Left tributaries	Pina, Yaselda, Tsna, Lan, Sluch, Ptsich, Braginka
Right tributaries	Horyn, Stokhid, Styr, Turija, Ubort, Zhelon, Slovechna, Uzh

Pripyat River at Mazyr, Belarus

The Pripyat River or Prypiat River (Ukrainian: Прип’ять, pronounced [ˈprɪpjɑtʲ]; Belarusian: Прыпяць, Prypiać, [ˈprɨpʲat͡sʲ]; Polish: Prypeć, [ˈprɨpɛtɕ]; Russian: Припять, [ˈprʲipʲɪtʲ]) is a river in Eastern Europe, approximately 761 km (473 mi) long. It flows east through Ukraine, Belarus, and Ukraine again, draining into the Dnieper.

Overview

The Pripyat passes through the exclusion zone established around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The city of Prypiat, Ukraine (population 45,000) was completely evacuated after the Chernobyl disaster.

Pripyat has catchment area of 121,000 km² (47,000 sq mi), 50,900 km² (19,700 sq mi) of which are in Belarus. 495 km (308 mi) of the whole river length lies within territory of Belarus.

Name etymology

Max Vasmer in his etymological dictionary notes that the historical name of the river mentioned in the earliest East Slavic document, Primary Chronicle is Pripet (Припеть) and cites the opinion of other linguists that the name meant "tributary", comparing with Greek and Latin roots. He also rejects some opinions which were improperly based on the stem -пять, rather that original -петь.

It might also derive from the local word pripech used for a river with sandy banks.

See also

• Pripyat Marshes
• Pripyat (city)
• Chernobyl disaster
• Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Books

• (in Russian, English and Polish) Ye.N.Meshechko, A.A.Gorbatsky (2005) Belarusian Polesye: Tourist Transeuropean Water Mains, Minsk, Four Quarters,
• (in Belorussian, Russian and English) T.A.Khvagina (2005) POLESYE from the Bug to the Ubort, Minsk Vysheysha shkola, ISBN 985-06-1153-7.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• Pripyat: Radioactive pollution, 2003