The Psou (; ady, Псыу; ka, ფსოუ; ab, Ҧсоу; russian: Псоу) is a river in the West Caucasus, bordering the

Gagra Range Gagra Range (; ka, გაგრის ქედი, tr; russian: Гагрский хребет, Gagrskij hrebet) is a mountain range of the Greater Caucasus in Abkhazia, Georgia.The range runs between the valleys of the Bzyb and Psou rivers t ...

to the east. It flows along the southern slopes of the

Greater Caucasus The Greater Caucasus ( az, Böyük Qafqaz, Бөјүк Гафгаз, بيوک قافقاز; ka, დიდი კავკასიონი, ''Didi K’avk’asioni''; russian: Большой Кавказ, ''Bolshoy Kavkaz'', sometimes translat ...

Mountain Range and forms a part of the border between

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

( Abkhazia) and

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 ...

. Its source in the Aigra Mountain, and it flows into the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

. The Psou is long, and the

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, ...

is approximately . Between the mouth of the river and the mouth of the

Mzymta Mzymta (, , lit. 'the place (-ҭа) of the river Мӡым", , ''Mezmytha'') is a river in Western Caucasus, Russia, flowing through Mostovsky District and the city of Sochi ( Adlersky City District) of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. Mzymta is the lar ...

is a "sandy depositional foreland", which is approximately in length and wide. The principal tributaries of the Psou are the Besh and the

Pkhista The Pkhista ( ka, ფხისთა) is a river in the West Caucasus, near the border between Georgia (Abkhazia) and Russia. It has a length of Alternate url/ref> and flows into the left (eastern) bank of the Psou to the south of the village of ...

. Between 1913 and 1955 there was a hydrological station in operation at Leselidze, roughly upstream of the river mouth. The Psou gained notoriety as a smuggling route out of the country, by-passing Russian controls on the border. As of 2008 it was still designated as a transboundary river which lacked an international cooperation agreement as part of the UNECE Water Convention.

References

{{Rivers of Georgia Rivers of Krasnodar Krai Rivers of Georgia (country) Rivers of Abkhazia International rivers of Europe International rivers of Asia Georgia (country)–Russia border Smuggling routes Drainage basins of the Black Sea