Vilija River

The river Neris () or Viliya ( be, Ві́лія, pl, Wilia ) rises in northern Belarus. It flows westward, passing through Vilnius (Lithuania's capital) and in the south-centre of that country it flows into the Nemunas (Neman), at Kaunas, as its main tributary. Its length is .

For After Belarus the river runs through Lithuania.

The Neris connects successive Lithuanian capitals – Kernavė and Vilnius. Along its banks are burial places of the pagan Lithuanians. At from Vilnius are the old burial mounds of Karmazinai, with many mythological stones and a sacred oak.

Dual naming

The reasons for the dual naming of the river as Neris by the Lithuanians and Viliya (formerly ''Velja'', meaning "big, great" in Slavic) by the Slavs are complex. Even in Vilnius, there are toponyms including both names, e. g. ''Neris'' remains in the riverside names of '' Paneriai'' and ''Paneriškės'' while ''Velja'' is a part of the name ''Valakampiai'', which means "an angle of Velja" in Lithuanian. Vykintas Vaitkevičiusbr>Mysterious Neris
''Šiaurės Atėnai''. 2005-07-23 nr. 758 In Kaunas, a part of the city by the Neris river, that was formerly a separate town, is also named Vilijampolė (Vilija + polis, that means " polis by Vilija").

Although it has been suggested that ''Neris'' is the primeval name of the river, while the name ''Viliya'' is of secondary extraction, the dual naming most probably emerged from the confluence of the rivers Neris (now known as Narach River, leaving Lake Narach) and Velja, in the historical Slavic/Baltic borderland, each ethnos choosing their own name for the river starting at the confluence. It is moreover evidenced by the fact that the name ''Neris'' was never used to name the river Velja up to this confluence. Therefore, it has been proposed that the Narach River had in fact been considered the upper reaches of Neris by the Balts in ancient times.

Etymology of "Neris"

The name ''Neris'' is of Baltic origin, a cognate of the Lithuanian ''nerti'' generally meaning "to dive, swim downstream" as well as "to net, crochet". It is likely that the name had a more general meaning of "flow" or particularly "swift and swirling flow"V. Mažiulis, Prūsų kalbos etimologijos žodynas, L-P, V., 1996, t. 3, p. 178-179 in early times.

Etymologically, the name is one of a class of hydronyms, widespread in the modern and prehistoric Baltic ranges; e.g., Lithuanian Narotis, Narasa (rivers), Narutis (lake), Old Prussian Narus, Nara near Moscow. These are related to Lithuanian ''narus'', "deep", and ''nerti'', "to dive".

More remote connections are obscure, although the root is believed to be Indo-European. There are a number of possibilities:

* Pokorny's 2nd ''*ner-'', "under" ('' Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch'', pp765–766);
*Derksen's *, o-grade * (''Slavic Inherited Lexicon'');
*A relation to the Greek god Nereus, which may be from *''snau-'', "to give milk to", in the sense of "flow" (Partridge, ''Origins'' (1983)).
* Another relationship of "Neris" with the Sanskrit word "Neer"/"Naar" which means water.

Basin

Total watershed is , of which with are in Belarus.

Basin within Belarus

The river is called Viliya in Belarus. There is the Belarus largest Vileyka Reservoir by Viliya, up off the Vileyka city.

Right tributaries

* Narach
* Servach
* Stracha

Left tributaries

*Iliya
* Usha
* Ashmyanka

Basin within Lithuania

The watershed within Lithuania is Neries mažųjų intakų (su Nerimi) pabaseinis
(Basin small tributaries of Neris (including Neris))

Tributaries

* Verkė
*Vilnia
* Vokė
* Bražuolė
* Dūkšta
* Musė
* Laukysta
*Lomena

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