The Seman is a major river in western

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

. It is formed by the confluence of the rivers Devoll and Osum, a few km west of Kuçovë. It is long ( with its longest source river Devoll) and its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which 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 . Its average discharge is . It meanders generally westwards through a flat lowland. Near Fier, the Seman receives the Gjanica from the left. It flows into the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

at the southern margin of the Divjakë-Karavasta National Park.

Name

classical antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

, the Seman River was known as the ''Apsus'', which is a derivative of the

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

root ''*ăp-'' "water, river". The Illyrian hydronym ''Apsus'', corresponds to ''Apsias'', a river name in southern Italy brought by Illyrian migrations (

Iapygians The Iapygians or Apulians () were an Indo-European-speaking people, dwelling in an eponymous region of the southeastern Italian Peninsula named Iapygia (modern Apulia) between the beginning of the first millennium BC and the first century BC. The ...

) in the region.

References

Rivers of Albania Geography of Berat County Geography of Fier County {{Albania-river-stub