| Bolshoy Cheremshan River | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Location | |
| Country | Tatarstan andUlyanovsk Oblast,Russia |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | |
| • location | Bugulma-Belebey Hills |
| Mouth | Kuybyshev Reservoir,Volga |
• coordinates | 54°10′10″N49°32′44″E / 54.16944°N 49.54556°E /54.16944; 49.54556 |
• elevation | 53 m (174 ft) |
| Length | 336 km (209 mi) |
| Basin size | 11,500 km2 (4,400 sq mi) |
| Discharge | |
| • average | 1,660 m3/s (59,000 cu ft/s) (maximal) |
| Basin features | |
| Progression | Volga→Caspian Sea |
Bolshoy Cheremshan (Russian:Большой Черемшан, literallyGreater Cheremshan,Chuv.Aslă Şaramsan,Tatar:Олы Чирмешән) is a river inRussia, aleft tributary of theVolga between theKama andSamara. It is 336 kilometres (209 mi) long, and has adrainage basin of 11,500 square kilometres (4,400 sq mi).[1] It flows southwest to the Volga nearDimitrovgrad. The main inflows are theBolshaya Sulcha andMaly Cheremshan. The maximal discharge is 1,660 cubic metres per second (59,000 cu ft/s) (1979), and the minimal mineralization is 600-800mg/l. The riverbed is meandering and the meadows are wide. From around 1650 the Trans-Kama Line of forts ran along or near the Cheremshan.[citation needed]
The historical nameCheremisan is borrowed from thetatarChirmeshen and comes from the ethnonymCheremisy in theKipchak version -Tat.Chermysh, and it is respectively from theChuvash (Bulgar)Şaramsan upper dialect and lowerŞirmasen. Initially, this ethnonymCheremis, Chirmysh,Şarmăsh meant not only theMari, but also theChuvash. Chuvash -Cheremis are calledŞarmăsh, from theOguro-Bulgar rootşar, şur, şyr, şir - a ravine which in different toponyms was transferred to neighboring languages assher, cher, char - for example;shirme, sherma, chirma, from the Chuvashşyrma, şarma, şurma: Ik Shurma, Urum-Shirma village, Kara-Shirma village, Tatarskaya Ikshurma village, Staraya Ik shurma village, Shurma. Thus,Chirme + shan means -ravine river, borrowed purely from theChuvash (Bulgar) language asŞyrmasan fromŞyrma -Chirme and the Chuvash affix of belonging in the pluralsan/-sen. The ethnonymCheremis is associated with the fact that these peoples settled near the ravines "Şurma, Şyrma, Şarma" the etymology of which is fromŞur - totear, gap, cliff (of the earth) and the more ancientChĕr (to scratch), according to myths, the ravines appeared as a result of the fact thatUlyp scratched the earth with aplow [1]. This same name is found in the well-known form of the hydronym -Dzharamsan, recorded by the Arab travelerIbn Fadlan, 992, who, having visited theVolga Bulgaria, accurately conveyed theBulgar (Chuvash) nameŞaramsan, where the sound "Ş" was conveyed as "DZ" due to the absence in Arabic of a letter conveying the phonetics of "Ş". The Chuvash consideredKhĕrlĕŞyr (Red Ravine) to be one of the holy spirits intraditional ethnoreligion - a symbol of the "edge of the world" behind the horizon of which the sun hides. For this reason, the Chuvash chose places for settlements near ravines, following ritual and cult beliefs and traditions associated with ideas about the structure of the world based on the mythologies of their ancestors, because thekeremet (yrsamai) had to be located near a ravine, and accordingly, a temple was first erected there, and a settlement nearby.
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