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Vistula (Polish Wisła) is the
longest river in Poland. It is 1,047 kilometers
(678 miles) long and drains about 192,000 square kilometers (74,000 sq. miles), or almost two thirds of Poland's surface.
The Vistula has its source in the south of the country, at Barania Góra (1220m high) in the Beskidy mountains where it starts with White Little Vistula (Biała Wisełka) and Black
Little Vistula (Czarna Wisełka). It then continues to flow over the vast Polish plains, passing several large
Polish cities along its way, including Cracow, Sandomierz, Warsaw, Plock,
Wloclawek, Torun, Swiecie, Tczew and Gdańsk. With a delta and several branches (Leniwka, Przekop, Śmiała Wisła, Martwa Wisła,
Nogat and Szkarpawa) it empties into the
Vistula Lagoon and Gdansk
Bay of the Baltic Sea
Vistula river basin
History
The name Vistula is probably "Old-European" ("Venedian" ?) and was recorded by Tacitus in 98 AD in his
Germania. During that time the Vistula River ran into the Mare Suebicum,
which was later called Baltic Sea. According to him, near the delta lived the
East Germanic tribes of the Suebi and
Burgundians, on both banks the Goths
and east of them the Aestii-Prussi, Galindi, Sudauer, Borusci, Veneti, Fenni-Finns, and more. There he described people on the
most eastern part of the Mare Suebicum, the Finns.
However, Tacitus' knowledge of the different peoples was second-hand at best; as such, it should be taken with the proverbial
grain of salt. He also used the term "Germans" not for describing ethnicity, for example when describing Wenets (Veneds, Venets), Peucyns and Fenns he wrote,
that he isn't sure if he should call them Germans, since they have settlements and they fight on foot, or rather Sarmats since they have some similar customs to them.
Ptolemy also recorded the Germanic(?) tribes at the Vistula River.
The Vistula river is only a short portage from the Dnieper River, and
thence to the Black Sea. Boats could be rolled from one river to the next there.
What later became the city of Kyiv in Ukraine
was earlier known by its Gothic name of Danapirstadir "City on the Dnieper". The Baltic Sea-Vistula-Dnieper-Black Sea water route
was one of the most ancient trade-routes, the Amber road, on which amber and
other items were traded from Northern Europe to Greece, Asia, Egypt, and elsewhere.
Cities
List of cities with nearby tributaries
Leniwka branch:
Nogat branch:
Right tributaries
List of right tributaries with a nearby city
Left tributaries
List of left tributaries with a nearby city
Related topics
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