Kama (river)


The Kama, also known as the Chulman, is a long river in Russia. It has a drainage basin of. It is the longest left tributary of the Volga and the largest one by discharge. At their confluence, in fact, the Kama is larger in terms of discharge than the Volga.
It starts in the Udmurt Republic, near Kuliga, flowing northwest for, turning northeast near Loyno for another, then turning south and west in Perm Krai, flowing again through the Udmurt Republic and then through the Republic of Tatarstan, where it meets the Volga south of Kazan.
Before the advent of railroads, important portages connected the Kama with the basins of the Northern Dvina and the Pechora. In the early 19th century the Northern Ekaterininsky Canal connected the upper Kama with the Vychegda River, but was mostly abandoned after just a few years due to low use.

Dams and reservoirs

The Kama is dammed at several locations:
The largest tributaries of the Kama are, from source to mouth:
Even today, disputes over the primacy of the rivers continue: Volga or Kama? Scientific facts say that the Volga flows into the Kama, and not vice versa. The confluence of the Volga and the Kama has exactly the same water content. The source of the Volga is below the source of the Kama, which is the main factor in determining the superiority of any river. Compared to the Kama basin, the Volga has a larger basin. More rivers flow into the Kama than the Volga. Experts have proven that the valley of the Kama River is more ancient than the Volga River valley. In other words, at the time of the existence of the ancient Kama, also known as the Paleo-Kama, there was no Volga. Later, geological changes caused the Volga to join the Kama at right angles. Also looking at the map, we can understand that the confluence of the Kama and the Volga is the continuation of the Kama canal. The bed of the Kama is lower, so the Volga clearly flows into the Kama.