The Alatyr River flows through the expanses of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Chuvashia and Mordovia.
Inhabitants of numerous settlements that are located along the banks, the river helps to solve economic and transport problems, supplies fish, pleases the eye and refreshes.
Origin of the name
In the Mordovian language, the river is called Ratorley, in the Chuvash Ulatar.
Philologists and historians argue about the exact meaning of the name of the river Alatyr.
One of the options suggests that the river name is formed by the words "motley city". However, experts have long identified a sequence: first people give the name to the river, and then to the city.
Another version refers to the mythological stone Alatyr, which in Slavic myths denotes the center of the world. The laws that the supreme god Svarog gave to people are carved on it.
A more plausible version is that the word Alatyr is formed from the Mordovian words "ala" + "tor" (drag down). There are many whirlpools along the river, perhaps this was the reason for such a sonorous name.
However, the Erzya and Moksha peoples lived in these places, it is possible that it is in their languages that understanding should be sought,how the river name is translated.
Geography
According to the water register, Alatyr belongs to the Upper Volga basin, while being part of the Sura river basin, Alatyr is a left tributary.
Hydrography
Length is almost 300 km. The source is located near the city of Pervomaisk, which is located in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
The border between Mordovia and the Nizhny Novgorod region runs along the riverbed. At first, the river is a small stream one meter wide and half a meter deep. But such a seemingly safe stream for inexperienced travelers is dangerous: in some places the water spills up to 10 m wide, forming deep, up to 2 meters, sucking hollows.
In the upper reaches of the Alatyr River, the banks are low, barely reaching a meter height, and the floodplain is wide. In the hot summer, the river in its upper course can even dry up.
River waters flow through the lands of the Nizhny Novgorod region, in the vicinity of the village of Orlovka, changing their appearance. Here Alatyr is already wide - from coast to coast about 15 meters at a depth of over 2 meters. Further, the steep banks only occasionally go down. The current speed in these places is 0.1 m/s.
Then the river runs through the lands of Mordovia, where steep, high, up to 20 m high, banks are replaced by lowlands. The width of the Alatyr River in Mordovia is from 25 to 50 m, and near the Turgenev reservoir it is even 100 m. The river depth also increases: on reaches up to 3 m, and on sonorous rifts up to 1.5, but more often 0.2 m. The speed also changes flow, amounting to 0.4-0.5 m/s. The riverbed is meandering.
In the lower reaches of the river, the appearance is changing again, and in the Alatyrsky district (Chuvashia) it becomes weak and muddy. The river completes its run on the northern side of the city of Alatyr, flowing into the Sura.
The basin of the Alatyr River is 11 thousand square meters. km.
More than 30 rivers flow into Alatyr, some of them are so insignificant that they don't even have their own names. The largest tributaries are the Insar (length 168 km) and Rudnya (length 86 km), flowing from the right side.
Alatyr is affected by the weather: usually in November, with the onset of persistent frosts, it freezes, forming ice up to 0.5 m thick, and opens in April.
Average water consumption is 40 m3/s. The river is fed by snow, high water occurs in spring.
In summer and winter, the water is clean, bright, turbidity is 25-50 g/m3, during the flood period it increases to 500 g/m3.
According to the chemical composition, the water belongs to the hydrocarbonate class, the mineralization is 450 mg/l.
Coastline
The Alatyr River flows along the Volga Upland in its northern part.
The shores are a combination of clay deposits and limestone, experts have determined the time when the coastline was formed - the Jurassic period.
On the high bank on the left side there are many dense forests, broad-leaved and mixed, on the lower right there are swamps, small lakes.
The river has a floating nature, and is also used to supply water to settlements. Waters of Alatyrattractive to anglers, they are home to fish such as burbot, pike and perch.
Settlements on the banks of the river
For a long time Alatyr has been densely populated by people. First, the Moksha and Erzya tribes lived here, then the Cossacks and merchants of the Russian state began to explore the open spaces.
Now on the river banks of the city:
- Alatyr in Chuvashia.
- Ardatov in Mordovia, known since the 18th century, formerly called the village of Novotroitskoye.
In the Mordovian village. Turgenevo is now home to 5 thousand people, and the village smoothly passes into the city of Ardatov.
There are villages along the banks of Alatyr, large and small, their names are old and sonorous: Lunga, Kendya, Puzskaya Sloboda, Madaevo, Baikovo.
River City
It was the river that gave its name to this ancient settlement in the Volga region. In 1552, Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of a fortress on the river bank, which would guard the Russian borders that had expanded after the capture of Kazan. The location was convenient: high on the shore, over a cliff, surrounded by forest.
A small fortress was built in the form of a pentagon, surrounded by a moat with water and a strong wall with 7 towers. Traditional buildings were placed under the protection of the fortress: a prison and a church, an official hut and a treasury, boyars' houses and a governor's yard.
Until the 17th century, the fortress reliably guarded the borders of the state from the raids of wild steppe tribes. Soon handicraft settlements appeared near the fortress, the city grew, the population increased.
The city received its coat of arms in 1780 from Catherine the Great, it depicted 3a quiver with arrows - a sign of military prowess. Received economic development after the construction of the railway from Moscow to Kazan.
Today the city of Alatyr occupies an area of about 40 square meters. km, 35 thousand people live in it. This is the second largest and most important city in Chuvashia (after Cheboksary).
