River mouth Terek Mouth Terek River | Length 278 km Country Russia | |
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Main source Caucasus Major, North Ossetia Basin size 12,200 km (4,700 sq mi) | ||
The Sunzha (Russian: Су́нжа; [ˈsunʐə], Ingush: Шолжа, Sholʒə, Ossetian: Сунжæ, Sunžæ; [sunʒə], Chechen: Соьлжа, Sölƶa) is a river in North Ossetia, Ingushetia and Chechnya, Russia, a tributary of the Terek River. It flows northeast inside the great northwest bend of the Terek River and catches most of the rivers that flow north from the mountains before they reach the Terek. It is 278 kilometres (173 mi) long. The Sunzha rises on the Northern slope of the Caucasus Major. Its major tributaries are the Assa River and Argun River. With a turbidity of 3,800 grams per cubic metre (6.4 lb/cu yd), it carries 12.2 million tons of alluvium per year. It is used for irrigation. Cities that lie on the Sunzha include Nazran, Karabulak, Grozny (the capital of Chechnya), and Gudermes. During the First and Second Chechen Wars, the destruction of petroleum reservoirs caused the Sunzha to become polluted with petroleum.
Contents
Map of r. Sunzha, Chechnya, Russia
Nomenclature
The origin of the name of the river has some versions. The most probable of versions name Sunzha has come from Mongol-Turkic languages in the deformed type. It is known, that Mongols called it Suinchie, Russian Sevenz and in the Chechen language it is names has got in corrective type Solchzha.
There is also other version that the river Sunzha Chechens called before Okhi «Oh'-hi, Оhhи » that means in translation with Chechen – «downwards the river».