The upper reaches of this river are a popular water tourism destination. In the summer, you can often see groups of people rafting on its waters in boats and rafts. And extremely picturesque beaches are a favorite place for lovers of beach holidays. This river has the beautiful name Agidel, which translates as "White River".
Agidel is the pearl of Bashkiria. Nowhere else is there such a place where one could be imbued with the grandeur of the beautiful mountains of the Southern Urals, feel the spirit of the times and feel the power of beautiful legends and legends.
Geography
The beginning of the Belaya River (Agidel) is located in the heart of Bashkiria - between the Uraltau and Avalyak ranges. As noted above, these are the mountains of the Southern Urals. The first third of the river’s path runs along the intermountain basin to the south-west, and its character is no different from other rivers of the Urals. She is just as cheerful and playful.
Then the river breaks through the ridges to the west, to the Russian Plain, after which it turns north and crosses the territory of the whole republic. Locals respectfully call her the mother of all the rivers of Bashkiria.
Description of the Agidel River
Belaya is the most important waterway of Bashkortostan, the left tributary of the Kama River. The area of its pool is 141900 sq. kilometers. The length is 1420 km. The river takes its beginning not far from the city of Iremel (east of it).
Upper waters flow through a swampy low valley. Further, below the village of Tyrlyansky, it sharply narrows. Some sections of it have steep, steep slopes covered with forest. As the river reaches the steppe plain, below the confluence of the Nugush (right tributary), its channel expands again, and after the river flows into it. Ufa Agidel becomes a typical lowland river.
Further, flowing along a rather vast floodplain, the river meanders, breaking into branches. The right bank is more elevated.
River tributaries and cities
The main food is snow. At the mouth, the average annual flow rate is 950 m 3 / s. The largest tributaries:
- right: Sim, Nugush, Ufa, Fast Tanip, Bir;
- left: Urshak, Ashkadar, Karmasan, Dema, Baza, Chermasan, Xun.
The river is navigable from the mouth to the city of Ufa, then navigation is irregular to the pier Meleuz.
On the banks of Belaya are such cities as Ufa, Meleuz, Beloretsk, Salavat, Ishimbay, Sterlitamak, Birsk and Blagoveshchensk. And in the place where the beautiful river Agidel breaks out of the mountain gorges of the Urals into the hilly expanses, there is a huge village Yumaguzino.
Numerous bridges were built across the river, the largest of which (railway and automobile) are thrown in the capital of Bashkiria - the city of Ufa.
Fauna and flora
A wide variety of fish are found in the waters of the Agidel River: common roach, pike, bream, perch, catfish, pike perch, chub, ruff, bakery, burbot, gudgeon, sterlet, silver bream, gudgeon, trout (only in the upper reaches), ide, grayling, asp , dace, taimen (very few). This is a real treasure for lovers of fishing.
The riverbanks are mostly covered with steppe vegetation, and forests (mostly broad-leaved) are found only in places. In the middle course, willows, poplars and dogrose grow mainly around. In large quantities, in the lowlands near the river grows blackberry.
Rafting on the Agidel River
According to Belaya, group rafts are organized, which everyone can use.
Water voyage along Belaya gives you the opportunity to enjoy travel to amazingly fabulous places, to learn the fascinating history of the Southern Urals, to hear legends about this wonderful and mysterious land.
Agidel is one of the most popular routes on boats, rafts, kayaks and catamarans. Here, the former All-Union route No. 59, called "By White on the Rafts", passes through here.
Natural attractions
In addition to rafting enthusiasts, numerous cavers visit the river basin. It is here that the Kapova cave, known to the whole world, with preserved primitive drawings, is located, there is the Mindegulovskaya cave, the Teatralny, Akbutinsky and Kutuk-Sumgan caves, and many other smaller caves and grottoes.
Where there are exits to the earth's surface of groundwater, wonderful blue lakes with clear ice water rich in various minerals are formed. The most famous is the Blue Lake, where the Sakasska stream originates from. This is the beginning of the Shulgan River, located near the entrance to the Kapova Cave, and the griffin Taraval.
The Shulgan-Tash Nature Reserve
The Agidel River in Bashkiria flows through the territory of the Shulgan-Tash Nature Reserve and Kandrykul Park. The cave of the same name is one of the most picturesque, moreover, from the largest karst caves in Bashkiria. It occupies the 5th place in length (2,910 meters studied length) and the 2nd in depth (160 meters amplitude) among all Bashkir caves.
It is glorified thanks to the ancient drawings available on its walls (times of the Late Paleolithic). Their age is 17,000 years, of which there is scientific evidence. Previously, such a Paleolithic painting was found only in France and Spain.
The four halls of the cave have such ancient images - the Halls of Signs, Chaos and the Dome on the first floor, and on the second floor the Figures Hall.
Most of the paintings (38%) are abstract signs, in second place (32%) are difficultly distinguishable spots, but rather colorful (the remains of drawings destroyed by time). On the third (27%) - zoomorphic images, among which the figures of horses and mammoths predominate, but there are also bison, bulls, rams, deer. All these are messages of the most ancient ancestors left in the underground halls of Shulgan-Tash.
A bit about the history of the river in legends
Many interesting facts exist in the history of rivers (Agidel among them) and the Ural Mountains. It is impossible to tell about all of them.
There is one beautiful folk legend "Ural-Batyr" dating back to antiquity. The protagonist of the legend accomplishes many feats: he defeats the cruel padishah Katila, over the terrible monsters in the kingdom of the snake Kakhkakhi, saves people, birds and animals from the padishah of the divas of Azraka. Having obtained living water, the batyr sacrifices himself, but does not gain immortality by drinking it himself. He sprayed it around him so that nature would remain forever alive.
People after his death poured a high mound over his grave. From it the Ural mountains formed, and the remains of the Ural Batyr miraculously turned into gems, iron, copper, gold and silver.
The hero of this had assistants - three sons: Idel, Yaik and Nugush. Sakmar, having disowned his own father Shulgen (the elder brother of Ural-Batyr), became the fourth. All of them cut river channels with their diamond swords in the mountains in order to save the suffering people from thirst. The legend says that the formed rivers received the names of those same four batyrs.
Now the names of 2 of those rivers have changed: Yaik became the Urals, and Idel became Agidel.