300px, The Ket was a part of the Siberian River Routes. The Ket (russian: Кеть), also known in its upper reaches as the Bolshaya Ket (russian: Большая Кеть) is a west-flowing river in the

Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai ( rus, Красноя́рский край, r=Krasnoyarskiy kray, p=krəsnɐˈjarskʲɪj ˈkraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), with its administrative center in the city of Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Siber ...

and

Tomsk Oblast Tomsk Oblast (russian: То́мская о́бласть, ''Tomskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It lies in the southeastern West Siberian Plain, in the southwest of the Siberian Federal District. Its administrative cen ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, a right

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the Ob. The Ket has a length of and a

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

of . It freezes up in late October or early November and stays under the ice until late April or early May. Its main tributaries are the Sochur, Orlovka and Lisitsa from the right, Malaya Ket, Mendel,

Yelovaya The Yelovaya, also known as Bolshaya Yelovaya and Chizhandzi (russian: Еловая, Большая Еловая, Чижандзи) is a river in Krasnoyarsk Krai in Russia, a left tributary of the Ket ( Ob basin). The river is long, and its drai ...

, and Chachamga from the left. The Ket once served as one of the main river routes in Siberia. A portage near its headwaters allowed one to cross from the Ob River basin to the

Yenisei The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat language, Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan language, Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas language, K ...

basin. The Russians established a fort at Ketsk a few miles above the Ob in 1602 and another at Makovsk near the head of navigation in 1618. Makovsk was also called Makarskoi Fort or Makovskaya Pristan (Makovsk Landing). The portage east to

Yeniseysk Yeniseysk ( rus, Енисейск, p=jɪnʲɪˈsʲejsk) is a town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. Population: 20,000 (1970). History Yeniseysk was founded in 1619 as a stockaded town—the first town on the Yenisei ...

, one of the longest portages in Siberia, was called the Makarskoi Portage. When John Bell John Bell, "Travels from St Petersburg in Russia to diverse parts of Asia", Edinburgh, 1806, pages 377-380) sailed down the Ket in August 1722 he compared it to the River

Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, whic ...

. He complained about the crookedness, sandbars, mosquitos, lack of inhabitants and the tall trees and brambles on both sides which made it gloomy. His voyage from Makovsk to the Ob took 25 days. In the late 19th-century the Ket-Kas Canal connected the Ket with the Greater Kas River which flows into the

. This project made the Ket a part of a waterway system connecting the Ob River basin with the

. But the canal - shallow, long, inconveniently located, and frozen for the greater part of the year - proved uncompetitive with the

Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the ea ...

, and was abandoned around 1921. See also

Ket people Kets (russian: Кеты; Ket: Ostygan) are a tribe of Yeniseian speaking people in Siberia. During the Russian Empire, they were known as Ostyaks, without differentiating them from several other Siberian people. Later, they became known as ''Ye ...

References

{{reflist Rivers of Krasnoyarsk Krai Rivers of Tomsk Oblast