Dnieper Rapids


The Dnieper Rapids are the historic rapids on the Dnieper river composed of outcrops of granites, gneisses and other types of bedrock of the Ukrainian Shield. The rapids began below the present-day city of Dnipro where the river turns to the south, and dropped 50 meters in 66 kilometers, ending before the present-day city of Zaporizhia.
There were nine major rapids along this path which almost totally obstructed the river for navigation. Also, there were about 30-40 smaller rapids and 60 islands and islets.
After the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station was built in 1932, they were inundated by the Dnieper Reservoir.

Historic mentions

The Dnieper Rapids were part of the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle. The route was probably established in the late eighth and early ninth centuries and gained significant importance from the tenth until the first third of the eleventh century. On the Dnieper the Varangians had to portage their ships round seven rapids, where they had to be on guard for Pecheneg nomads.
The existence of the rapids was mentioned in Emperor Constantine VII's work De Administrando Imperio and in The Tale of Igor's Campaign.

Names of the major rapids

In Ukrainian tradition, there were 9 major rapids :
  1. Kodatsky. The Kodak Fortress formerly stood near this rapid.
  2. Sursky. Almost all the rocks of this rapid were submerged in shallow water.
  3. Lohansk
  4. Dzvonesky
  5. Nenasytec or Revučy, the biggest and most dangerous of the Dnieper Rapids, called Hell by the locals, 2.4 km long and over 1 km wide. Its roaring could be heard several kilometers away.
  6. Vovnyzky
  7. Budylo
  8. Lyshny. This name is most likely due to the fact that it was the least dangerous, posing almost no problems for navigation
  9. Vil'ny
Names given in transcription from the Ukrainian language.
Correspondence of some of the names from different historic sources is seen in the table below: