The Kuta is a
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
n river north of
Lake Baikal in
Irkutsk Oblast
Irkutsk Oblast (russian: Ирку́тская о́бласть, Irkutskaya oblast; bua, Эрхүү можо, Erkhüü mojo) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of the Angara, Lena, and N ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, that flows into the
Lena
Lena or LENA may refer to:
Places
* Léna Department, a department of Houet Province in Burkina Faso
* Lena, Manitoba, an unincorporated community located in Killarney-Turtle Mountain municipality in Manitoba, Canada
* Lena, Norway, a village in ...
at
Ust-Kut
Ust-Kut (russian: Усть-Кут) is a town and the administrative center of Ust-Kutsky District in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located from Irkutsk, the administrative center of the oblast. Located on a western loop of the Lena River, the town ...
. With its right tributary, the Kupa, it forms a ‘T’ shape with the flat head pointing west and the point at Ust-Kut.
The river is long and its basin is about .
Course
Its source is about above sea level and its mouth, . It flows first west and then south through the
taiga
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...
and swampland of the
Lena-Angara Plateau
The Lena-Angara Plateau ( rus, Лено-Ангарское плато), is a plateau in Siberia. Administratively it is in the Irkutsk Oblast, Russian Federation. The plateau is named after the Lena and Angara rivers, of which it forms the waters ...
. At its juncture with the Kupa, it turns east and flows through a relatively narrow and deep valley to Ust-Kut. It is not navigable and is frozen from November to the middle of May. The upper course is practically uninhabited, but is used for forestry. The lower course has a few villages. The
Baikal-Amur Mainline from
Bratsk eastward runs along its north side for about . The next river to the west is the
Ilim
The Ilim (russian: Илим) is a river in Irkutsk Oblast in Russia, a right tributary of the Angara. It flows north between and parallel to the rivers Angara and Lena River, Lena, and then swings west to join the Angara south of Ust-Ilimsk.
Geo ...
. In Cossack times a portage from the Ilim to the Kuta connected the Yenisei and Lena basins.
Tributaries
The Kupa is a right tributary that flows directly north and joins the Kuta where it turns east.
See also
*
Siberian River Routes
Siberian River Routes were the main ways of communication in Russian Siberia before the 1730s, when roads began to be built. The rivers were also of primary importance in the process of Russian conquest and exploration of vast Siberian territori ...
References
{{Expand section, date=August 2010
Rivers of Irkutsk Oblast