The Urka is a river of

Kaunas County Kaunas County ( lt, Kauno apskritis) is one of ten counties of Lithuania The territory of Lithuania is divided into 10 counties ( Lithuanian: singular ''apskritis'', plural ''apskritys''), all named after their capitals. The counties are ...

, central

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. It flows for and has a basin area of . It is a left tributary of the

Barupė The Barupė is a river of Jonava District Municipality and Kėdainiai District Municipality, Kaunas County, central Lithuania. It flows for and has a basin area of . It is a left tributary of the Nevėžis. The Barupė river starts next to Žin ...

. The Urka river starts in the Bitvanas Forest, in

Kaunas District Municipality Kaunas District Municipality (''Kauno rajono savivaldybė'') is one of 60 municipalities in Lithuania. The seat of the municipality is the city of Kaunas, which does not belong to the municipality but is a separate administrative unit. It surroun ...

. It flows towards north western direction through

and

Kėdainiai District Municipality Kėdainiai () is one of the oldest cities in Lithuania. It is located north of Kaunas on the banks of the Nevėžis River. First mentioned in the 1372 Livonian Chronicle of Hermann de Wartberge, its population is 23,667. Its old town dates to th ...

, then empties into the

river next to Labūnava village. Karaliūnai, Butkūnai, Užumiškiai, Kačergiai, Pakapiai, Labūnava villages and

Vandžiogala Vandžiogala (Polish: ''Wędziagoła'') is a small town in Kaunas County, Kaunas district municipality in central Lithuania. It is located north of Kaunas city municipality next to Urka brook. A Holy Trinity church was built in Vandžiogala in 1 ...

town are located on the shores of the Urka. A small pond is dammed on the Urka nearby its mouth. The

hydronym A hydronym (from el, ὕδρω, , "water" and , , "name") is a type of toponym that designates a proper name of a body of water. Hydronyms include the proper names of rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, swamps and marshes, seas and oceans. As a ...

is of uncertain origin. One version is that it derives from Lithuanian verb ''urkioti'' ('to scold, to wig'), another version that it could be of

Finno-Ugric Finno-Ugric ( or ; ''Fenno-Ugric'') or Finno-Ugrian (''Fenno-Ugrian''), is a traditional grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except the Samoyedic languages. Its formerly commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is ba ...

background (as et, urg 'rivulet').

References

Rivers of Lithuania Kėdainiai District Municipality Kaunas District Municipality {{Lithuania-river-stub