It is not by chance that Yenisei is called the brother of the ocean. This river is long and mighty, swift and stormy, deep and cold. Translated from Evenk, its name means “big water”.
Geographical position
The Yenisei River flows through the center of Asia. It crosses the Russian territory almost exactly along the meridian, in the south-north direction, and divides Siberia into Western and Eastern, and the whole country - approximately in half.
Length
The Yenisei stretches for 3487 km. According to this parameter, it occupies the fourth position among Russian rivers, passing through the Ob, Amur and Lena. The Yenisei carries its waters through all natural areas: from mountainous semi-deserts to tundra.
Where is the source
The beginning of the Yenisei is considered to be the Kara-Balyk lake in the Sayan Mountains. First, the river jumps over rapids and rifts called the Bolshoi Yenisei. Near the city of Kyzyl, it merges with the Small Yenisei and simply forms the Yenisei. This place is considered the center of Asia from a geographical point of view.
Where is the mouth
The Yenisei ends in the Kara Sea, where it flows in one powerful stream more than 70 km wide. Its mouth is of decent depth, funnel-shaped and looks like a bay. It is called the Yenisei Gulf. There, on Dikson Island, is the northernmost port, where river and sea vessels, as well as icebreakers, come.
Character
The nature of the current, the outlines of the channel and banks change throughout the entire length of the Yenisei. The right bank of the river is 5, 6 times higher than the left. The latter is called Polish because there are many fields and meadows along it, and in spring it is flooded with melt water. And the right bank is stone, because it is very high and mountainous. It is considered the kingdom of the Siberian taiga, where Daurian larch prevails - the northernmost tree on the planet. From the dense forest protrude now ornate outliers of syenite (the legendary Krasnoyarsk pillars), now the hills of the Yenisei ridge, now sandy precipices, now rocks with waterfalls. On the left bank of the Yenisei there are swampy lands on which forests of fir and spruce grow.
About half of the way, the river flows very rapidly along the rocky channel. Somewhere it breaks up into a network of branches, as in the Tuva depression, where the river was dubbed "Forty Yeniseev". In other places, where the hills clamp the flow, dangerous rapids and rifts appear, and the water rushes incredibly fast - at a speed of 5-7 m / s. It just foams furiously and seethes so much that the voices of people are not heard. Many rapids are named with sonorous names: "Stone Village", "Stone Island", "Kazachok", "Shaman", "Gremyachinsky". The closer to the confluence with the Kara Sea, the calmer the course of the Yenisei becomes.
This frenzied energy has long been used by people to generate electricity. Two hydroelectric power plants stand proudly in the upper reaches: Krasnoyarsk and Sayano-Shushenskaya. Also, two large reservoirs of the same name have been created.
