Editing Irtysh

{{short description|River in China, Kazakhstan and Russia}}
{{Infobox river
| name                = Irtysh
| image               = Irtysh river basin map.png
| image_caption       = Irtysh watershed
| mapframe            = yes
| mapframe-zoom       = 3
| source1             = [[Altai Mountains]]
| source1_location    = [[Altay Prefecture]], China
| source1_coordinates = {{coord|47|52|39|N|89|58|12|E|}}
| source1_elevation   = {{convert|2960|m|abbr=on}}
| mouth               = [[Ob (river)|Ob]]
| mouth_location = Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia
| mouth_coordinates   = {{coord|61|04|52|N|68|49|49|E|type:river_region:RU|display=it}}
| mouth_elevation = {{convert|20|m|abbr=on}}
| progression         = {{ROb}}
| subdivision_type1   = Country
| subdivision_name1   = [[Mongolia]], [[China]], [[Kazakhstan]], [[Russia]]
| length_km = 4248
| discharge1_avg      = {{convert|2150|m3/s|cuft/s|abbr=on}} (near [[Tobolsk]])
| basin_size_km2 = 1643000
|subdivision_type2=Cities|subdivision_name2=[[Oskemen]], [[Semey]], [[Pavlodar]], [[Omsk]], [[Tobolsk]], [[Khanty-Mansiysk]]
| extra               = 
}}

The '''Irtysh''' ({{langx|ru|Иртыш}}; {{langx|kk|Ертіс|Yertis}}) is a [[river]] in [[Russia]], [[China]], and [[Kazakhstan]]. It is the chief tributary of the [[Ob (river)|Ob]] and is also the longest tributary river in the world.

The river's source lies in the [[Altai Mountains|Mongolian Altai]] in [[Dzungaria]] (the northern part of [[Xinjiang]], China) close to the border with [[Mongolia]].

The Irtysh's main tributaries include the [[Tobol]], [[Demyanka]] and the [[Ishim (river)|Ishim]]. The Ob-Irtysh system forms a major [[drainage basin]] in [[Asia]], encompassing most of [[West Siberian Plain|Western Siberia]] and the Altai Mountains.

==Geography==
[[File:Operational Navigation Chart D-5, 6th edition.jpg|left|thumb|Map including the lower reaches of the Irtysh River]]
[[Image:Irtish v Omsk.JPG|thumb|The Irtysh in [[Omsk]]]]
[[Image:Pavlodar-Fiume Irtysh.JPG|thumb|The Irtysh near [[Pavlodar]] in [[Kazakhstan]]]]
From its origins as the ''Kara-Irtysh'' (Black Irtysh) in the [[Mongolia]]n Altay mountains in [[Xinjiang]], China, the Irtysh flows northwest through [[Lake Zaysan]] in [[Kazakhstan]], meeting the [[Ishim (river)|Ishim]] and Tobol rivers before merging with the [[Ob]] near [[Khanty-Mansiysk]] in western Siberia, [[Russia]] after {{convert|4248|km}}.

The name '''Black Irtysh''' (''Kara-Irtysh'' in Kazakh, or ''Cherny Irtysh'' in Russian) is applied by some authors, especially in Russia and Kazakhstan, to the upper course of the river, from its source entering Lake Zaysan. The term '''White Irtysh''', in opposition to the Black Irtysh, was occasionally used in the past to refer to the Irtysh below lake Zaysan;<ref>{{harvnb|Abramof|1865|p=65}}, and the map before p. 65.</ref> now this usage is largely obsolete.

===Main tributaries===
The largest tributaries of the Irtysh are, from source to mouth:
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Kelan River|Kelan]] (right)
* [[Burqin (river)|Burqin]] (right)
* [[Kalzhyr]] (right)
* [[Kürshim]] (right)
* [[Naryn (Irtysh)|Naryn]] (right)
* [[Bukhtarma]] (right)
* [[Ulba]] (right)
* [[Uba (river)|Uba]] (right)
* {{ill|lt=Shar|Shar River|de|Schar (Fluss)}} (left)
* [[Chagan (Irtysh)|Chagan]] (left)
* [[Om (river)|Om]] (right)
* [[Tara (Irtysh)|Tara]] (right)
* [[Uy (Irtysh)|Uy]] (right)
* [[Osha (river)|Osha]] (left)
* [[Shish (river)|Shish]] (right)
* [[Ishim (river)|Ishim]] (left)
* [[Tobol]] (left)
* [[Noska]] (left)
* [[Demyanka]] (right)
* [[Konda (river)|Konda]] (left)
{{div col end}}

==Economic use==
In Kazakhstan and Russia, [[Tanker (ship)|tanker]]s, passenger ships, and [[Cargo ship|cargo vessel]]s navigate the river during the ice-free season, between April and October. [[Omsk]], home to the headquarters of the state-owned Irtysh River Shipping Company, functions as the largest [[river port]] in Western Siberia.

On the Kazakhstan section of the river there are presently three major [[Hydroelectricity|hydroelectric]] plants, namely at [[Bukhtarma Hydroelectric Power Plant|Bukhtarma]], [[Ust-Kamenogorsk Hydroelectric Power Plant|Ust-Kamenogorsk]] and [[Shulbinsk Hydroelectric Power Plant|Shulbinsk]]. The world's deepest [[lock (water transport)|lock]], with a drop of {{convert|42|m|ft}}, allows river traffic to by-pass the [[dam]] at [[Ust-Kamenogorsk]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.waterwaysworld.com/latest.cgi?month=012008&start=20 | title=Waterways World: Latest | access-date=2010-02-07 | archive-date=2011-07-26 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726045506/http://www.waterwaysworld.com/latest.cgi?month=012008&start=20 }}</ref> Plans exist for the construction of several more dams.

[[File:Gorskii 04668u.jpg|thumb|left|Tobolsk river wharves in 1912]]
Three dams have been constructed on the Chinese section of the Irtysh as well:
the Keketuohai (可可托海) Dam ({{coord|47|10|51|N|89|42|35|E|display=inline|region:CN-62_type:landmark}}),
the Kalasuke (喀腊塑克) Dam ({{coord|47|08|14|N|88|53|15|E|display=inline|region:CN-62_type:landmark}}),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdm.unfccc.int/UserManagement/FileStorage/GKM18VL6J904R2IFHPC7YXNTWA5UD3|title=Xinjiang Kalasuke 140MW Hydroelectric Project}}</ref><ref>[http://www.iwhr.com/cms/cms/infopub/infopre.jsp?pubtype=D&pubpath=zgskyww&infoid=1280908325577811&templetid=1280908325935210&channelcode=A10095404&userId=10002 考察调研组专家考察在建的喀腊塑克水利枢纽工程] (A group of experts visits the Kalasuke Dam), 2010-08-05</ref> and
the [[Project 635 Dam]]. There are also the [[Burqin Chonghu'er Dam]] and the [[Burqin Shankou Dam]] on the Irtysh's right tributary, the [[Burqin River]] and the [[Jilebulake Dam]] and [[Haba River Shankou Dam]] on another right tributary, the [[Haba River]].

The [[Northern river reversal]] proposals, widely discussed by the USSR planners and scientists in the 1960s and 1970s, would send some of the Irtysh's (and possibly Ob's) water to the water-deficient regions of central Kazakhstan and [[Uzbekistan]]. Some versions of this project would have seen the direction of flow of the Irtysh reversed in its section between the mouth of the [[Tobol]] (at [[Tobolsk]]) and the confluence of the Irtysh with the Ob at Khanty-Mansiysk, thus creating an "Anti-Irtysh".<ref>{{citation|journal=Soviet Geography|volume=21|issue=10|pages=638–644|year=1980|title=The possible environmental impact of the anti-Irtysh and problems of rational nature management
|doi=10.1080/00385417.1980.10640361
|first=V. A.|last=Skornyakova|first2=I. Ye.|last2=Timasheva
}}</ref>
While these gigantic [[interbasin transfer]] schemes were not implemented, a smaller [[Irtysh–Karaganda Canal]] was built between 1962 and 1974 to supply water to the dry Kazakh [[steppe]]s and to one of the country's main industrial center, [[Karaganda]]. In 2002, pipelines were constructed to supply water from the canal to the [[Ishim River|Ishim]] and Kazakhstan's capital, [[Astana]].

In China, a short canal was constructed in 1987 (water intake at {{coord|47|26|31|N|87|34|11|E|region:CN-62_type:landmark}}) to divert some of the Irtysh water to the [[Endorheic basin|endorheic]] [[Lake Ulungur]], whose level had been falling precipitously due to the increasing irrigation use of the lake's main affluent, the [[Ulungur River]].<ref name=fao1999>{{citation
|editor-first=T. |editor-last=Petr
|publisher=Food & Agriculture Org. |year=1999
|isbn=978-92-5-104309-7
|title=Fish and Fisheries at Higher Altitudes: Asia
|series=Issue 385 of FAO fisheries technical paper, ISSN 0429-9345
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4HESCeJyZcC&pg=PA257
|page=257
}} (An English translation of the original paper published in the ''Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta'' in 1979).</ref> In the last years of the 20th century and the early 2000s, a much more major project, the [[Irtysh–Karamay–Urümqi Canal]] was completed. Increased water use in China has caused significant concerns among Kazakh and Russian environmentalists.<ref>[http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/pp071606.shtml KAZAKHSTAN: ENVIRONMENTALISTS SAY CHINA MISUSING CROSS-BORDER RIVERS] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107011757/http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/pp071606.shtml |date=2017-11-07 }}. By Gulnoza Saidazimova, 7/16/2006.</ref><ref name=sievers>{{citation|url=http://www.tilj.org/content/journal/37/num1/Sievers1.pdf|title=Transboundary Jurisdiction and Watercourse Law: China, Kazakhstan and the Irtysh|first=Eric W.|last=Sievers|journal=Texas International Law Journal|volume=37|issue=1|year=2002|access-date=2013-09-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054754/http://www.tilj.org/content/journal/37/num1/Sievers1.pdf|archive-date=2013-09-21}}</ref>
According to a report published by Kazakhstan fishery researchers in 2013, the total Irtysh water use in China is about {{convert|3|km3|mi3|1}} per year; as a result, only about 2/3 of what would be the river's "natural" flow (6&nbsp;km<sup>3</sup> out of 9&nbsp;km<sup>3</sup>) reach the Kazakh border.<ref>{{citation
|url=http://www.group-global.org/lecture/view/2223
|title=Adapting of fisheries management to the changing Irtysh water basin hydrological regime
|last=Kulikov
|first=Evgeny Vyacheslavovich (Куликов Евгений Вячеславович)
|date=2013-08-23
|access-date=2013-09-21
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925111250/http://www.group-global.org/lecture/view/2223
|archive-date=2013-09-25
}}</ref>

==Cities==
[[File:Irtysh from air over Omsk.JPG|thumb|An aerial view of the Irtysh in Omsk]]
Major cities along the Irtysh, from source to mouth, include:
* in China: [[Fuyun County|Fuyun]], [[Beitun, Xinjiang|Beitun]], [[Burqin County|Burqin]]
* in Kazakhstan: [[Oskemen]], [[Semey]], [[Aksu, Kazakhstan|Aksu]], [[Pavlodar]]
* in Russia: [[Omsk]], [[Tara, Omsk Oblast|Tara]], [[Tobolsk]], [[Khanty-Mansiysk]]

==Bridges==
[[File:Omsk 60 years of Victory bridge 2.jpg|thumb|The Sixty Years of Victory Bridge in Omsk. (The name commemorates the 60th anniversary of the [[V-E Day]])]]
Seven railway bridges span the Irtysh. They are located in the following cities:
* About 15&nbsp;km downstream from [[Serebryansk]] (on the dead-end branch line from [[Oskemen]] to [[Zyryanovsk]])
* [[Oskemen]]
* [[Semey]], on the [[Turkestan–Siberia Railway]]
* [[Pavlodar]], on the South Siberian rail line ([[Nur-Sultan]] to [[Barnaul]])
* near [[Cherlak]], on the Middle Siberian rail line ([[:ru:Среднесибирская магистраль|Среднесибирская магистраль]])
* [[Omsk]], on the [[Trans-Siberian Railway]]. Opened in 1896, this is the oldest bridge on the river.
* [[Tobolsk]], on the [[Tyumen]]-[[Surgut]] line
As the [[Kuytun–Beitun Railway]] in China's Xinjiang is being extended toward [[Altay City]], a railway bridge over the Irtysh at Beitun will need to be constructed as well.

Numerous highway bridges over the Irtysh exist in China, Kazakhstan, and Russia.

The last bridge downstream on the Irtysh, a highway bridge opened in 2004, can be found at Khanty-Mansiysk, right before the river's confluence with Ob.

==History==
[[File:Irtysh River landscape in the Burqin 02.jpg|thumb|Irtysh River landscape in [[Burqin County]], China|left]]
A number of [[Mongols|Mongol]] and [[Turkic people|Turkic]] peoples occupied the river banks for many centuries. In 657, [[Tang dynasty]] general [[Su Dingfang]] defeated [[Ashina Helu]], [[Khan (title)|qaghan]] of the [[Western Turkic Khaganate]], at the [[Battle of Irtysh River]], ending the [[Tang campaign against the Western Turks]].<ref name="Cosmo">{{cite book|author=Jonathan Karem Skaff|editor=Nicola Di Cosmo|title=Military Culture in Imperial China|year=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-03109-8|pages=181–185}}</ref> Helu's defeat ended the Khaganate, strengthened Tang control of [[Xinjiang]], and led to Tang suzerainty over the western Turks.<ref name="Millward">{{cite book|author=James A. Millward|title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-13924-3|page=33}}</ref>

In the north-east of Irtysh, there is the [[:mn:Янди_ван|Yenisei Kingdom]], ruled by the [[:ja:メリク_(オゴデイ家)|Melig]] family from the [[House of Ögedei|Ögedei dynasty]] of the [[Yuan dynasty]], which ruled until 1361. It was destroyed by the [[Oirats]].

In the 15th and 16th centuries the lower and middle courses of the Irtysh lay within the Tatar [[Khanate of Sibir]]; its capital, [[Qashliq]] (also known as [[Qashliq|Sibir]]) was located on the Irtysh a few kilometres upstream from the mouth of the [[Tobol]] (where today's [[Tobolsk]] is situated).

The Khanate of Sibir was [[Conquest of the Khanate of Sibir|conquered]] by the Russians in the 1580s. The Russians started building fortresses and towns next to the sites of former Tatar towns; one of the first Russian towns in Siberia (after [[Tyumen]]) was [[Tobolsk]], founded in 1587 at the fall of the Tobol into the Irtysh, downstream from the former Qashliq.<ref>{{citation
|first=James |last=Forsyth
|publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1994
|isbn=978-0-521-47771-0
|title=A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nzhq85nPrdsC&pg=PA34
|page=34
}}</ref>
Farther east, [[Tara, Omsk Oblast|Tara]] was founded in 1594, roughly at the border of the [[taiga]] belt (to the north) and the [[steppe]] to the south.<ref>{{citation
|first=G. Patrick |last=March
|publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=1996
|isbn=978-0-275-95648-6
|title=Eastern Destiny: Russia in Asia and the North Pacific
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=eNc7bwXKs_kC&pg=PA31
|page=31
}}</ref>

In the 17th century the [[Dzungar Khanate]], formed by the Mongol [[Oirats|Oirat]] people, became Russia's southern neighbor, and controlled the upper Irtysh.<ref>{{harvnb|Forsyth|1994|pp=37,125–127}}</ref> As a result of Russia's confrontation with the Dzungars in the [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]]'s era,<ref>{{harvnb|Forsyth|1994|p=128}}</ref> the Russians founded the cities of [[Omsk]] in 1716, [[Semipalatinsk]] in 1718, [[Ust-Kamenogorsk]] in 1720, and [[Petropavl]]ovsk in 1752.

The Chinese [[Qing dynasty|Qing Empire]] [[Ten Great Campaigns#The Dzungars and pacification of Xinjiang (1755–1759)|conquered]] [[Dzungaria]] in the 1750s. This prompted an increase in the Russian authorities' attention to their borderland; in 1756, the [[Orenburg]] Governor [[Ivan Neplyuyev]] even proposed the annexation of the [[Lake Zaysan]] region, but this project was forestalled by Chinese successes.<ref>{{harvnb|Abramof|1865|p=65}}</ref> Concerns were raised in Russia (1759) about the (theoretical) possibility of a Chinese fleet sailing from Lake Zaysan down the Irtysh and into Western Siberia. A Russian expedition visited Lake Zaysan in 1764, and concluded that such a riverine invasion would not be likely. Nonetheless, a chain of Russian pickets was established on the [[Bukhtarma River]], north of Lake Zaysan.<ref>{{harvnb|Abramof|1865|p=66}}</ref> Thus the border between the two empires in the Irtysh basin became roughly delineated, with a (sparse) chain of guard posts on both sides. In the summer of 1828, the Prussian explorer [[Alexander von Humboldt]] visited the Irtysh region on his journey through Russia and Central Asia; he came face-to-face with Chinese and Mongol border guards.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Daum | first=Andreas W.|author-link=Andreas Daum | year=2024 | title=Alexander von Humboldt: A Concise Biography | location=Trans. Robert Savage. Princeton, N.J. | publisher=Princeton University Press |page=122 | isbn=978-0-691-24736-6 }}</ref>

The situation in the borderlands in the mid-19th century is described in a report by A. Abramof ([[:ru:Абрамов, Николай Алексеевич|ru]]; 1865). Even though the Zaysan region was recognized by both parties as part of the [[Qing dynasty|Qing empire]], it had been annually used, by fishing expeditions sent by the [[Siberian Cossacks|Siberian Cossack Host]]. The summer expeditions started in 1803, and in 1822–25 their range was expanded through the entire Lake Zaysan and to the mouth of the Black Irtysh. Through the mid-19th century, the Qing presence on the upper Irtysh was mostly limited to the annual visit of the Qing ''[[amban]]'' from [[Chuguchak]] to one of the Cossacks' fishing stations (''Batavski Piket'').<ref>{{harvnb|Abramof|1865|pp=62–63}}; see also the border shown on the map before p. 65.</ref>

The border between the Russian and the Qing empires in the Irtysh basin was established along the line fairly similar to China's modern border with Russia and Kazakhstan by the [[Convention of Peking]] of 1860.<ref>Articles 2 and 3 in the [[:ru:s:Пекинский договор (1860)|Russian text of the treaty]]</ref> The actual border line pursuant to the convention was drawn by the Protocol of Chuguchak (1864), leaving Lake Zaysan on the Russian side.<ref>(See [[:File:China-Russia border - protocol of Chuguchak 1864.jpg|the map]])</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.npm.gov.tw/exh98/frontier/en2.html|title=The Lost Frontier&nbsp;– Treaty Maps that Changed Qing's Northwestern Boundaries_The Changing Borders|work=npm.gov.tw}}</ref> The Qing empire's military presence in the Irtysh basin crumbled during the 1862–77 [[Dungan Revolt (1862–77)|Dungan Revolt]]. After the fall of the rebellion and the reconquest of Xinjiang by [[Zuo Zongtang]], the border between the Russian and the Qing empires in the Irtysh basin was further slightly readjusted, in Russia's favor, by the [[Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881)]].

==Cultural references==
The Irtysh River serves as a backdrop in the epilogue of [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]]'s 1866 novel ''[[Crime and Punishment]]''. In Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's ''[[The GULAG Archipelago]]'', the chapter "The White Kitten" details Georgi Tenno's escape from a camp along this river.

==Other uses==
*[[FC Irtysh Omsk]], a soccer team in [[Omsk]], Russia.
*[[FC Irtysh Pavlodar]], a soccer team in [[Pavlodar]], Kazakhstan.
*''Irtysh'' (''Иртыш''), a Russian military hospital ship, used at the [[Bering Strait#Expeditions|Bering Strait Swim 2013]].

==See also==
* [[Geography of China]]
* [[Geography of Kazakhstan]]
* [[Geography of Russia]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==Citations==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==General literature==
* ''[[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]''
* {{citation
|first=A.|last=Abramof
|title=The lake Nor-Zaysan and its neighborhood
|others=translated by John Michell
|year=1865
|journal=Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London|volume=35
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=YuoRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA59
|pages=58–69|doi=10.2307/3698078|jstor=3698078
}}

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline|Irtysh River}}

{{China Rivers}}
{{Rivers of Kazakhstan}}
{{Rivers of Russia}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Irtysh River| ]]
[[Category:Altai Mountains]]
[[Category:Braided rivers in Russia]]
[[Category:International rivers of Asia]]
[[Category:Rivers of China]]
[[Category:Rivers of Kazakhstan]]
[[Category:Rivers of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug]]
[[Category:Rivers of Omsk Oblast]]
[[Category:Rivers of Tyumen Oblast]]
[[Category:Rivers of Xinjiang]]
[[Category:Turkic toponyms]]
[[Category:West Siberian Plain]]