Selenga

Selenga (sĕlĕng-gä`), river, 616 mi (992 km) long, rising in the Khangai Mts., NW Republic of Mongolia, and flowing east, then north, across the Mongolian-Russian border to Lake Baykal; the Orkhon River is its main tributary. The Selenga, navigable from May to October, is Mongolia's chief river; its role as a transportation artery decreased with the advent of the Trans-Baykal RR. Ulan-Ude, an important Russian rail junction, river port, and industrial center, is the largest city on the river.

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Selenga 

a river in the Mongolian People’s Republic and the Buriat ASSR. The Selenga is formed by the confluence of the Ider and Muren rivers and empties into Lake Baikal, creating a delta 680 sq km in area. Approximately half of the river water that enters Lake Baikal comes from the Selenga. The river is 1,024 km long from the source of the Ider River; 409 km of the lower course is in the USSR. It drains an area of 447,000 sq km. The main tributaries are the Egin-Gol and Orkhon in Mongolia and the Dzhida, Chikoi, Khilok, and Uda in the USSR.

The Selenga is primarily a flatland river, with narrow sections of the valley (to 1–2 km) alternating with troughlike wider sections (to 20–25 km) where it frequently divides into branches. It has low spring highwater, with flash floods in summer and fall caused by rain; the low-water period occurs in winter. The mean flow rate is 310 cu m per sec near the Mongolia-USSR border and 935 cu m per sec 127 km from the mouth. The river is frozen over from November through April. There is regular navigation to Sukhe-Bator in Mongolia. The capital of the Buriat ASSR, Ulan-Ude, is situated on the Selenga, as is the urban-type settlement of Selenginsk.

REFERENCES

Kuznetsov, N. T. Gidrografiia rek Mongol’skoi Narodnoi Respubliki. Moscow, 1959.
Cherkasov, A. E. Vodnye resursy rek basseina Baikala, ikh ispol’zovanie i okhrana. Irkutsk, 1973.

N. T. KUZNETSOV