The Dnieper Rapids ( uk, Дніпрові пороги, ) are the historical

rapid Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...

s on the

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...

river in Ukraine, composed of

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial ...

s of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...

es and other types of bedrock of the

Ukrainian Shield In geology the Ukrainian Shield (or Ukrainian Crystalline Massif) is the southwest shield of the East European craton. The Ukrainian Shield and the Voronezh Massif consist of 3.2-3.8 Ga Archaean crust in the southwest and east, and 2.3-2.1 Ga ...

. The rapids began below the present-day city of

Dnipro Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

, where the river turns to the south, and dropped 50 meters in 66 kilometers, ending before the present-day city of

Zaporizhzhia Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. It is the Capital city, administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zapor ...

(whose name literally means "beyond the rapids"). There were nine major rapids (some sources give a smaller number), about 30–40 smaller rapids and 60 islands and islets. The rapids almost totally obstructed navigation of the river. After the

Dnieper Hydroelectric Station The Dnieper Hydroelectric Station ( uk, ДніпроГЕС, DniproHES; russian: ДнепроГЭС, DneproGES), also known as Dneprostroi Dam, in the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, is the largest hydroelectric power station on the Dnieper river. ...

was built at Zaporizhzhia in 1932, the rapids were inundated by the

Dnieper Reservoir The Dnieper Reservoir ( uk, Дніпровське водосховище, ) is a water reservoir on the Dnieper river in Ukraine that was created by construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station at Zaporizhzhia in 1932. The filling of the re ...

Historical mentions

The Dnieper Rapids were part of the trade route from the

Varangian The Varangians (; non, Væringjar; gkm, Βάραγγοι, ''Várangoi'';Varangian
" Online Etymo ...

s to the Greeks first mentioned in the

Primary Chronicle The ''Tale of Bygone Years'' ( orv, Повѣсть времѧньныхъ лѣтъ, translit=Pověstĭ vremęnĭnyxŭ lětŭ; ; ; ; ), often known in English as the ''Rus' Primary Chronicle'', the ''Russian Primary Chronicle'', or simply the ...

. The route was probably established in the late eighth and early ninth centuries and gained significant importance from the tenth until the first third of the eleventh century. On the Dnieper the travelers had to

portage Portage or portaging (Canada: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a ...

their ships round seven rapids, where they had to be on guard for

Pecheneg The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks tr, Peçenek(ler), Middle Turkic: , ro, Pecenegi, russian: Печенег(и), uk, Печеніг(и), hu, Besenyő(k), gr, Πατζινάκοι, Πετσενέγοι, Πατζινακίται, ka, პაჭ ...

nomads. The rapids was mentioned in Emperor

Constantine VII Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Kar ...

's work ''

De Administrando Imperio ''De Administrando Imperio'' ("On the Governance of the Empire") is the Latin title of a Greek-language work written by the 10th-century Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII. The Greek title of the work is ("To yown son Romanos"). It is a domes ...

'' and in

The Tale of Igor's Campaign ''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'' ( orv, Слово о пълкѹ Игоревѣ, translit=Slovo o pŭlku Igorevě) is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language. The title is occasionally translated as ''The Tale of the Campai ...

Names of the major rapids

In Ukrainian tradition, there were 9 major rapids (given in the direction of the river flow as shown in the picture on the right):''Яворницький Д.І.'' Дніпрові пороги
Альбом фотогр. з географічно-історич. нарисом — Харків: Перша друкарня держ. видавництва України, 1928. — С. 41.(in Ukrainian)Омельченко Г. М. Спогади лоцмана порогів Дніпрових.- Дніпропетровськ: Січ, 1998.(in Ukrainian) # ( uk, Кодацький поріг). The

Kodak Fortress Kodak fortress ( uk, Кодак; pl, Kudak) was a fort built in 1635 by the order of the Polish king Władysław IV Vasa and the Sejm on the Dnieper River near what would become the town of Stari Kodaky (now near the city of Dnipro in Ukraine) ...

formerly stood near this rapid. # ( uk, Сурський поріг). Almost all the rocks of this rapid were submerged in shallow water. # ( uk, Лоханський поріг) # ( uk, Дзвонецький поріг) # , or Nenasytets ( uk, Ненаситецький поріг, Ненаситець, lit=Insatiable ) or Revuchyi ( uk, Ревучий, lit=Roaring ), the biggest and most dangerous of the rapids, called Peklo ( uk, Пекло, lit=Hell ) by the locals, 2.4 km long and over 1 km wide. Its roaring could be heard several kilometers away. # ( uk, Вовнизький поріг) # ( uk, Будильський поріг) # ( uk, Лишній поріг, ). This name is most likely because it was the least dangerous, posing almost no problems for navigation. # ( uk, Вільний поріг, ) Names given in transcription from the Ukrainian language. Correspondence of some of the names from different historical sources is seen in the table below:

References

{{Coord, 48, 11, 00, N, 35, 11, 20, E, type:landmark_region:UA_dim:100000, display=title Dnieper Former bodies of water Geography of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Geography of Zaporizhzhia Oblast History of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast History of Zaporizhzhia Oblast Rapids Rivers of Ukraine Varangians