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Neva

The Neva (/ˈnvə/ NEE-və, UK also /ˈnvə/ NAY-və; Russian: Нева́, IPA: [nʲɪˈva] ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of 74 kilometres (46 mi), it is the fourth-largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge (after the Volga, the Danube and the Rhine).

The Neva is the only river flowing from Lake Ladoga. It flows through the city of Saint Petersburg, the three smaller towns of Shlisselburg, Kirovsk and Otradnoye, and dozens of settlements. It is navigable throughout and is part of the Volga–Baltic Waterway and White Sea–Baltic Canal. It is the site of many major historical events, including the Battle of the Neva in 1240 which gave Alexander Nevsky his name, the founding of Saint Petersburg in 1703, and the Siege of Leningrad by the German army during World War II. The river played a vital role in trade between Byzantium and Scandinavia.

The earliest people in recorded history known to have inhabited the area are the Finnic people. The word Neva is widespread in Finnic languages, having quite cognate meanings. In Finnish it means poor fen, in Karelian: watercourse and in Estonian (as nõva): waterway.

It has been postulated the name could derive from Indo-European adjective newā which means new – the river began its flow some time between 2000 BC and 1250 BC. However, the local place names with such influence coincide with Scandinavian traders and Slavs' first main settlement in the region, in the 8th century AD.

In the Paleozoic, 300–400 million years ago, all the delta region was covered by a sea. Modern relief, eminences, were formed by glacial scouring. Its retreat formed the Littorina Sea, the level of which was 7 to 9 metres (23 to 30 ft) higher than its successor the Baltic Sea. Then, the Tosna was flowing in the modern lower half of the Neva as today, into the Litorinal Sea. In the north of the Karelian Isthmus, the sea was united by a wide strait with Lake Ladoga. The Mga then flowed to the east, into Lake Ladoga, near the modern source of the Neva. Thus the Mga then was separate from the Tosna/lower-Neva basin.

Near the modern Lake Ladoga, by glacial rebound land rose faster, and an endorheic lake briefly formed. This overspilled, eventually the whole Mga valley and thus broke into the western valley (the valley of the Tosna/lower-Neva). The Ivanovo rapids of the modern Neva were created at the breakthrough. According to early books, the breakthrough may have been about 2000 BC, but according to more recent research, this happened at 1410–1250 BC, making the river rather young.

The valley is lined with glacial and post-glacial sediments and has changed little over 2,500 years. The delta was formed at that time, technically a pseudodelta, as not from accumulation of river material but by scouring past sediments.

The Neva flows out of Lake Ladoga near Shlisselburg, flows through Neva's lowlands and discharges into the Baltic Sea in the Gulf of Finland. It has a length of 74 kilometres (46 mi), and the shortest distance from the source to the mouth is 45 kilometres (28 mi). The river banks are low and steep, on average about 3 to 6 metres (10 to 20 ft) and 2 to 3 metres (7 to 10 ft) at the mouth. There are three sharp turns: the Ivanovskye rapids, at Nevsky Forest Park of the Ust-Slavyanka region (the so-called "Crooked Knee"), and near the Smolny Institute, below the mouth of the river Okhta. The river declines 4.27 metres (14.0 ft) in elevation between source and mouth. At one point the river crosses a moraine ridge and forms the Ivanovskye rapids. There, at the beginning of the rapids, is the narrowest part of the river: 210 metres (690 ft). The average flow rate in the rapids is about 0.8–1.1 metres per second (2.6–3.6 ft/s). The average width along the river is 400 to 600 metres (1,300 to 2,000 ft). The widest places, at 1,000 to 1,250 metres (3,280 to 4,100 ft), are in the delta, near the gates of the marine trading port, at the end of the Ivanovskye rapids near the confluence of the river Tosna, and near the island Fabrinchny near the source. The average depth is 8 to 11 metres (26 to 36 ft); the maximum of 24 metres (79 ft) is reached above the Liteyny Bridge, and the minimum of 4.0 to 4.5 metres (13 to 15 ft) is in Ivanovskye rapids.

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