Kama River

The Kama (russian: Ка́ма, ; tt-Cyrl, Чулман, ''Çulman''; udm, Кам) is a long«Река КАМА»
Russian State Water Registry river in Russia. It has a drainage basin of . It is the longest left tributary of the Volga and the largest one in discharge. At their confluence, in fact, the Kama is even larger than the Volga.

It starts in the Udmurt Republic, near Kuliga, flowing northwest for , turning northeast near Loyno for another , then turning south and west in Perm Krai, flowing again through the Udmurt Republic and then through the Republic of Tatarstan, where it meets the Volga.

Before the advent of railroads, important portages connected the Kama with the basins of the Northern Dvina and the Pechora. In the early 19th-century the Northern Ekaterininsky Canal connected the upper Kama with the Vychegda River (a tributary of the Northern Dvina), but was mostly abandoned after just a few years due to low use.

The Kama featured in the 2013 Russian film ''The Geographer Drank His Globe Away'', in the climactic rapids scene.

Dams and reservoirs

The Kama is dammed at several locations:
*At Perm, by the dam of the Kama Hydroelectric Station, forming the Kama Reservoir;
*At Chaykovsky, by the dam of the Votkinsk Hydroelectric Station, forming the Votkinsk Reservoir;
*At Naberezhnye Chelny, by the dam of the Nizhnekamsk Hydroelectric Station, forming the Nizhnekamsk Reservoir.

Tributaries

The largest tributaries of the Kama are, from source to mouth:

* Veslyana (left)
* Kosa (right)
* South Keltma (left)
* Vishera (left)
* Yayva (left)
* Inva (right)
* Kosva (left)
* Obva (right)
* Chusovaya (left)
* Tulva (left)
* Siva (right)
* Buy (left)
* Belaya (left)
* Izh (right)
* Ik (left)
* Toyma (right)
* Zay (left)
* Vyatka (right)
* Sheshma (left)
* Myosha (right)

Gallery

Image:W W Chusovaya Kama crossing.png, Crossing of the rivers Chusovaya (tributary) and Kama
Image:Kama yelabuga.jpg, View in Yelabuga
Image:Prokudin-Gorskii-25.jpg, A Russian truss bridge by Lavr Proskuryakov. Early colour photograph, taken ca. 1912.

References

External links

*
Naberezhnye Chelny and the Kama River

{{Authority control

Rivers of Perm Krai
Rivers of Tatarstan
Rivers of Udmurtia