Its basin is between theDnieper basin to the west, the lowerVolga basin immediately to the east, and theOka basin (tributary of the Volga) to the north. Native to much of the basin were Slavic nomads.[2]
The Don rises in the town ofNovomoskovsk 60 kilometres (37 mi) southeast ofTula (in turn 193 kilometres (120 mi) south of Moscow), and flows 1,870 kilometres to theSea of Azov. The river's upper half meanders subtly south; however, its lower half consists of a great eastern curve, includingVoronezh, making its final stretch, anestuary, runwest south-west. The main city on the river isRostov-on-Don. Its main tributary is theSeversky Donets, centred on the mid-eastern end of Ukraine, thus the other country in the overall basin. To the east of a series of three great ship locks and associated ponds is the 101-kilometre (63 mi)Volga–Don Canal.
The nameDon could stem from theAvestan worddānu- ("river, stream").[3] According to theKurgan hypothesis, the Volga-Don river region was the homeland of theProto-Indo-Europeans around 4,000 BC. The Don river functioned as a fertile cradle of civilization where the Neolithic farmer culture of the Near East fused with the hunter-gatherer culture of Siberian groups, resulting in the nomadic pastoralism of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.[4] The east Slavic tribe of theAntes inhabited the Don and other areas ofSouthern andCentral Russia.[5][6] The area around the Don was influenced by theByzantine Empire because the river was important for traders from Byzantium.[7]
In antiquity, the river was viewed as the border between Europe and Asia by some ancient Greek geographers.[8][9][10] In theBook of Jubilees, it is mentioned as being part of the border, beginning with its easternmost point up to its mouth, between the allotments of thesons of Noah, that ofJapheth to the north and that ofShem to the south.[11][note 1] During the times of the oldScythians it was known inGreek as theTanaïs (Τάναϊς) and has been a major trading route ever since.Tanais appears in ancient Greek sources as both the name of the river and of a city on it, situated in theMaeotian marshes.[note 2] Greeks also called the riverIazartes (Ἰαζάρτης).[13]Pliny gives the Scythian name of the Tanais asSilys.[14]
According to an anonymous Greek source, which historically (but not certainly) has been attributed toPlutarch, the Don was home to the legendaryAmazons ofGreek mythology.[15]
The area around the estuary has been speculated to be the source of theBlack Death in the mid-14th century.[16]
While the lower Don was well known to ancient geographers, its middle and upper reaches were not mapped with any accuracy before the gradual conquest of the area by theTsardom of Russia in the 16th century.[citation needed]
TheDon Cossacks, who settled the fertile valley of the river in the 16th and 17th centuries, were named after the river.[17]
The fort ofDonkov was founded by the princes ofRyazan in the late 14th century. The fort stood on the left bank of the Don, about 34 kilometres (21 mi) from the modern town ofDankov, until 1568, when it was destroyed by theCrimean Tatars, but was soon restored at a better fortified location. It is shown asDonko inMercator'sAtlas (1596).[18] Donkov was again relocated in 1618, appearing asDonkagorod inJoan Blaeu's map of 1645.[19]
Both Blaeu and Mercator follow the 16th-century cartographic tradition of letting the Don originate in a great lake, labeledResanskoy ozera by Blaeu. Mercator follows Giacomo Gastaldo (1551) in showing a waterway connecting this lake (by Gastaldo labeledIoanis Lago, by MercatorOdoium lac. Iwanowo et Jeztoro) to Ryazan and the Oka River. Mercator showsMtsensk (Msczene) as a great city on this waterway, suggesting a system of canals connecting the Don with theZusha (Schat) andUpa (Uppa) centered on a settlementOdoium, reported asOdoium lacum (Juanow ozero)[20] in the map made by BaronAugustin von Mayerberg, leader of an embassy to the Tsardom of Russia in 1661.
At its easternmost point, the Don comes within 100 kilometres (62 mi) of theVolga. TheVolga–Don Canal, 101 kilometres (65 mi), connects the two. It is a broad, deep waterway capable of transporting oil tanker size vessels. It is one of two which enables ships to depart theCaspian Sea, the other, a series, connected to theBaltic Sea. The level of the Don where connected is raised by the Tsimlyansk Dam, forming theTsimlyansk Reservoir.
For the next 130 kilometres (81 mi) below the Tsimlyansk Dam, the sufficient depth of the Don is maintained by the sequence of three dam-and-ship-lock complexes: the Nikolayevsky Ship Lock (Николаевский гидроузел), Konstantinovsk Ship Lock (Константиновский гидроузел), and the best known of the three, the Kochetovsky Ship Lock (Кочетовский гидроузел). The Kochetovsky Lock, built in 1914–19 and doubled in 2004–08, is 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) downstream of the discharge of theSeversky Donets and 131 kilometres (81 mi) upstream ofRostov-on-Don. It is at47°34′07″N40°51′10″E / 47.56861°N 40.85278°E /47.56861; 40.85278. This facility, with its dam, maintains a navigable head of water locally and into the lowermost stretch of the Seversky Donets. This is presently the last lock on the Don; below it, deep-draught navigation is maintained by dredging.[22]
In order to improve shipping conditions in the lower reaches of the Don, the waterway authorities support plans for one or two more low dams with locks. These will be inBagayevsky District and possiblyAksaysky District.[23]
^Hamilton 1983, p. 2: "During the eighth and ninth centuries the Khazar state reached its greatest extent and power, and the Antes and Slavs of the lower Don and Azov region, the old As or Rus tribes, participated in the first of the empires to be established on Russian soil."
^Tellier 2009, p. 251: "In 1261, the Genoese concluded an alliance with the Byzantine Empire of Nicaea and succeeded to establish trading posts at two terminals of the Silk Road on the Black Sea: Kaffa, in Crimea, and Tana, on the Don River, which runs towards the Black Sea."
Basilevsky, Alexander (2016-03-23).Early Ukraine: A Military and Social History to the Mid-19th Century. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.ISBN978-0-7864-9714-0.OCLC898167561.
Jones, Horace Leonard (1924).The Geography of Strabo. Vol. 5. London: Harvard University Press.
Litus, Ludmilla L. (2003). "Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov (11 May 1905 – 21 February 1984)". In Rydel, Christine (ed.).Russian Prose Writers Between the World Wars. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 272. Detroit: Gale Group. pp. 383–408.ISBN0787660167.
Massa, Isaac (1645). "Russiæ, vulgo Moscovia, pars australis". In Blaeu, Willem; Blaeu, Joan (eds.).Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive Atlas Novus in quo Tabulæ et Descriptiones Omnium Regionum [Theater of the World, or a New Atlas of Maps and Representations of All Regions] – viaWikimedia Commons.
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