River · Azerbaijan, Georgia
Kura
Kura is the longest river of the South Caucasus and the most important river in Azerbaijan. It starts in the mountains of north-eastern Turkey and ends in the Caspian Sea near Neftçala.
Picture credit: EvgenyGenkin (CC BY 2.5) · Alexkom000 (CC BY 4.0) · Ali Canıyev (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is the Kura?
The river starts here: Highlands of north-eastern Turkey.
It ends in the Caspian Sea near Neftçala.
Countries on the river: Azerbaijan, Georgia.
The story behind it
The Kura is a traveller: it starts in Turkey, crosses Georgia, where the capital Tbilisi was built right on its banks, and then spends its longest stretch in Azerbaijan. There the mountains open out into a wide, warm plain, and the river slows down and turns the colour of milky coffee because it carries so much mud. A huge dam at Mingachevir holds back a reservoir so big that people call it the Azerbaijani sea; it makes electricity and feeds canals that water cotton, wheat and melon fields. Sturgeon swim upstream to lay their eggs, and pelicans and herons fish in the quiet side arms. In spring, meltwater from the Caucasus can push the river over its banks. At the end it splits into muddy channels and slides into the Caspian Sea.
Questions children ask
How long is the Kura?
The Kura is about 1 515 kilometres long in total. Roughly 906 kilometres of that distance lie inside Azerbaijan, which is why it matters so much to that country.
Which countries does the Kura flow through?
It is counted here as the longest river of Azerbaijan, where its main course lies. Before that the water comes from Turkey and travels across Georgia, past the city of Tbilisi.
Where does the Kura flow into?
The river ends in the Caspian Sea, close to the town of Neftçala. The Caspian is the largest lake on Earth, so this water never reaches a real ocean.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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