The Târnava (full name in ro, Râul Târnava; hu, Küküllő; german: Kokel; tr, Kokul or Kokulu) is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. It is formed by the confluence of the

Târnava Mare The Târnava Mare ("Great Târnava"; hu, Nagy-Küküllő; german: Große Kokel) is a river in Romania. Its total length is and its basin size is . Its source is in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, near the sources of the Mureș and Olt in Ha ...

and

Târnava Mică The Târnava Mică ("Small Târnava"; hu, Kis-Küküllő; german: Kleine Kokel) is a river in Romania. Its total length is , and its drainage basin area is . Its source is in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, in Harghita County. It flows to the w ...

in the town of

Blaj Blaj (; archaically spelled as ''Blaș''; hu, Balázsfalva; german: Blasendorf; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Blußendref'') is a city in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. It has a population of 20,630 inhabitants. The landmark of the city is th ...

. The Târnava flows into the Mureș after 23 km near the town of Teiuș. The two source rivers of the Târnava are the Târnava Mare and Târnava Mică, and its tributaries include the Tur, Izvorul Iezerului, Secaș, and the Dunărița. Its

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, ...

covers an area of .Analysis of the Tisza River Basin 2007
IPCDR

Etymology

The name Târnava is of Slavic origin from ''trn'',See Trnka,

Trnava Trnava (, german: Tyrnau; hu, Nagyszombat, also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of a '' kraj'' (Trnava Region) and of an '' okres'' ( Tr ...

, etc. meaning " thorn". Other proposed origins for the river's Romanian name is ''Turn'' (tower) + ''dav'' from Dacian ''dava'' (structure/fortress), i.e. "the river that flows amongst towers and ''davas''"; or a reference to the Romanian city of

Turda Turda (; hu, Torda, ; german: link=no, Thorenburg; la, Potaissa) is a city in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is located in the southeastern part of the county, from the county seat, Cluj-Napoca, to which it is connected by the Europ ...

, forming ''Tur'' + ''ava'' from ''dava''. ''Trn'' (thorn) is used by Slavic peoples in the Balkans, but the 60% R1a Slavs (Poles, Belarusians, Russians) say ''syp/ship''. The Hungarian name Küküllő is of

Old Turkic Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic language, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested form of the Turkic languages, found in Göktürk and Uyghur Khaganate inscriptions dating from about the eighth to the 13th century. It is the o ...

origin from ''kukel'' meaning sloe, and is thought to have originated from the Avar people. , File:Prunus spinosa 002.jpg , alt2=Prunus spinosa , Küküllő hu, kökényes

References

Rivers of Alba County Place names of Slavic origin in Romania Rivers of Romania {{Alba-river-stub