The Žeimena River is a river in

Aukštaitija Aukštaitija (; literally in Lithuanian: ''Upper lands'') is the name of one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. The name comes from lands being in upper basin of Nemunas River or being relative to Lowlands up to Šiauliai. Geography Au ...

, eastern

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

, and right tributary of

Neris River The river Neris () or Viliya ( be, Ві́лія, pl, Wilia ) rises in northern Belarus. It flows westward, passing through Vilnius (Lithuania's capital) and in the south-centre of that country it flows into the Nemunas (Neman), at Kaunas, as ...

. Žeimena begins in Labanoras Forest and at

Lake Žeimenys A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

. Žeimena flows to the south passing

Kaltanėnai Kaltanėnai ( pl, Kołtyniany) is a town in Švenčionys district municipality, Vilnius County Vilnius County ( lt, Vilniaus apskritis) is the largest of the 10 counties of Lithuania, located in the east of the country around the city Vilnius. ...

town,

Švenčionėliai Švenčionėliai () is a city in Švenčionys district municipality, Lithuania. It is 10 km west of Švenčionys. The river Žeimena flows through Švenčionėliai. In 1940, there were around 1000 Jews in Švenčionėliai, i.e. 20 percent ...

city, and

Pabradė Pabradė (; pl, Podbrodzie; yi, פּאָדבראָדז ''Podbrodz'') is a town in Lithuania, in Švenčionys district municipality, on Žeimena river, 38 km south-west of Švenčionys. Pabradė is a busy place as the Vilnius– Daugavpil ...

city. Its confluence with Neris is located near the border of

Švenčionys Švenčionys (, known also by several alternative names) is a town located north of Vilnius in Lithuania. It is the capital of the Švenčionys district municipality. , it had population of 4,065 of which about 17% is part of the Polish minority ...

and

Vilnius district Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

s. The main tributaries of Žeimena are Lakaja, Saria, , Kiauna, Luknelė and Jusinė. Žeimena is one of the cleanest rivers in Lithuania. Also, it is one of the main places of

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

's spawning. The length of Žeimena is an object of discussion because it originates in a large lakeland of

Aukštaitija National Park __NOTOC__ Aukštaitija National Park is a national park in north-eastern Lithuania, about 100 km north of Vilnius. Established in 1974, it is the oldest of the five national parks in Lithuania. At first it was named Lithuanian SSR National ...

. The lakeland has many lakes that are interconnected by various rivers and streams, so it is difficult to say which lake is the source of which river. Traditionally, Lake Žeimenys is considered to be the source of Žeimena.

Notes

Rivers of Lithuania {{Lithuania-river-stub