Drin
Drini
River
Artificial Lake Koman filling up the canyons of the Drin in Northern Albania. A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system.
Country	Albania
Source	confluence of White Drin and Black Drin
- location	Kukës
- coordinates	42°04′N 20°25′E / 42.067, 20.417
Mouth	Adriatic Sea
- coordinates	41°38′N 19°34′E / 41.633, 19.567
Length	160 km (99 mi)
Drin is located in northern Albania

The Drin (from Dhrinos, Δρινος in Greek and Ancient greek) is the longest river in Albania with a total length of 335 km. This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. The White Drin (Drini i Bardhë Бели Дрим is a river in Kosovo and northern Albania, a -long headstream of the Drin. Black Drim (Drini i Zi meaning the black deer; Црн Дрим Latinic: Crn Drim) is a River in the Republic of Macedonia and Kukës ( Albanian: Kukës or Kukësi) is a Town in Albania located at 42 The kilometre ( American spelling: kilometer) symbol km is a unit of Length in the Metric system, equal to one thousand A mile is a unit of Length, usually used to measure Distance, in a number of different systems including Imperial units United States Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c "Riverine" redirects here For the use of that term in Maritime geography, see there This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. It has two confluences, one into the Adriatic Sea, the other one into the Bojana River (Buna in Albanian). Confluence, in Geography, describes the meeting of two or more Bodies of water. Albanian (sq ''Gjuha shqipe'' ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ is an Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million peoplewhile others claim that it derives from Daco -

Origin

The Drin starts at the confluence of its two headwaters, the Black Drin and White Drin, in the city of Kukës in the Trektan area of eastern Albania. Black Drim (Drini i Zi meaning the black deer; Црн Дрим Latinic: Crn Drim) is a River in the Republic of Macedonia and The White Drin (Drini i Bardhë Бели Дрим is a river in Kosovo and northern Albania, a -long headstream of the Drin. Kukës ( Albanian: Kukës or Kukësi) is a Town in Albania located at 42 Measured from there until its end at the Adriatic sea, the Drin is 160 km long. However, measured from the source of White Drin, its length is 335 km, making it the longest river that runs through Albania. The Black Drin (Crn Drim in Macedonian, Drini i Zi in Albanian) originates from the Lake Ohrid and runs through the Republic of Macedonia and Albania. Lake Ohrid (Охридско Езеро transliterated: Ohridsko Ezero; Liqeni i Ohrit straddles the mountainous border between the southwestern region of the The Republic of Macedonia (Република The White Drin (Beli Drim in Serbian, Drini i Bardhë in Albanian) originates from the Žljeb mountain, north of the town of Peć, Kosovo, and runs from there through to Albania. Peć is a city and municipality in north-western Kosovo. It is also the administrative centre of the homonymous district.

Course

From Kukës, the Drin flows through northern Albania, first flowing through the Has area to the north, passing through the towns of Spas, Msi and Fierzë, and then, upon reaching the Dukagjini area, it descends to the south, flowing through Apripë e Gurit, Toplanë, Dushman, Koman, Vjerdhë and Pale Lalej. Dukagjini is a region in Northern Albania and western Kosovo, which contains the North Albanian Alps, an extension of the Dinaric Alps At Vau i Dejës, it enters the low Shkodra Field and splits into two arms. One empties into the Bay of Drin (Albanian: Pellg i Drinit) into the Adriatic Sea southwest of the city of Lezhë (The Mouth of Drin, Albanian: Gryk'e Drinit). Lezhë ( Albanian: Lezhë or Lezha) is a City in northwest Albania, in the district The other empties into the Bojana River near Rozafa. Even though being a shorter branch by 15 km, the section that reaches the Bojana is called Great Drin (Drini i Madh in Albanian), because it brings much more water than the longer branch which reaches the sea. The Great Drin also once reached the sea but a major flood in 1858 cut it short from the sea, and breached through to the Bojana. Year 1858 ( MDCCCLVIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common The Great Drin is very wide and brings a huge amount of water (320 m³/s), but being short, some maps indicate it as a lake. After Vau i Dejës, the longer branch continues to the south, passing through Bushat, Mabë, Gajdër, Lezhë and Medes. South of Lezha it enters the low and flooded littoral area and flowing through the marshes it finally reaches the Adriatic. Lezhë ( Albanian: Lezhë or Lezha) is a City in northwest Albania, in the district

Economy

The Drin is extremely important for the Albanian economy, especially for its electricity production. Three dams are built over its cascades producing most of Albania's electricity. The artificial Lake Fierza (Albanian: Liqeni i Fierzës) created by the dam at Fierzë is the largest artificial lake in Albania with its surface of 73 km². The second largest lake is also built on this river. Lake Vau i Dejës (Liqeni i Vau te Dejës in Albanian) has an area of 25 km². Construction of Fierza power station caused some controversy in the 1980s. Without reaching any agreement, the Albanian government ordered the reservoir to be filled with water, which in the end flooded some border areas of Kosovo, then part of Yugoslavia. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ( Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, Macedonian: The Yugoslav government protested, but no solution was agreed on. Thus, today, Lake Fierza is shared by Albania and Kosovo.

Wildlife

Drin and Bojana rivers.

The Drin and its surrounding mountainous areas have a great variety of flora and fauna. Recently many fish species have been introduced such as the zander of northern Europe which is a predator of the native fish population. Zander is a Species of Fish. The scientific name is Sander lucioperca (or Stizostedion lucioperca) and it is closely allied to Perch

References

• Mala Prosvetina Enciklopedija, Third edition (1985); Prosveta; ISBN 86-07-00001-2
• Jovan Đ. Marković (1990): Enckiklopedijski geografski leksikon Jugoslavije; Svjetlost-Sarajevo; ISBN 86-01-02651-6

See also

• White Drin
• Black Drin
• Bojana River