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Sava also '''Save''' (in , Croatia , Bosnia And Herzegovina (making its northern border) and Serbia And Montenegro . LENGTH The Sava is created by two headwaters, Sava Dolinka (left) and Sava Bohinjka (right) which join between the Slovenian cities of Lesce and Radovljica . From there until it joins the Danube at Belgrade , Serbia and Montenegro, it's 945 km long (of which 206 km are in Serbia and Montenegro). From the source of its longer headwater, Sava Dolinka, in the north-western, Alpine region of Slovenia, it measures 990 km. Through the Danube, it belongs to the Black Sea drainage basin, and represents the Danube's longest right tributary and second longest of all, after Tisa . It was once the longest river flowing completely within Yugoslavia proper, but after the breakup of the country in 1991, it now flows through four countries. ORIGIN The 45 km long Sava Dolinka flows out of Nadiže spring in Planica mountain, part of the Julian Alps , at the altitude of 1222 m, near the Italian border. The stream goes underground and after 5 km breaks out again at the height of 842 m in Lake Podkoren, near Kranjska Gora . Its major (left) tributary is Radovna, which carved a beautiful gorge called "Bledski Vintgar". It flows through the cities of Kranjska Gora, Gozd Martuljek , Jesenice , near Bled and Lesce. The power station "Moste" (22,5 MW) with a small reservoir was constructed near Žirovnica . The shorter, 31 km long Sava Bohinjka originates in Komarče, at the altitude of 805 m, from underground sources whose water comes from the valley of Triglav , the highest peak of the Julian Alps, Slovenia and former Yugoslavia. It was originally known as Savica ("little Sava"), and creates a 60 m high waterfall ("Slap Savice"). Then it flows through Ukanc gorge, where the 3 MW power station "Savica" was constructed and flows into Lake Bohinj , creating a small delta. After flowing out from the lake, its known as Sava Bohinjka . It flows through Bohinjska Bistrica , Bohinjska Bela and close to Lake Bled , before it meets Sava Dolinka near Radovljica. GEOGRAPHY The Sava is draining an area of 95.719 km&2, including even 115 km&2 in northern and 2,7 km³ big Ada Ciganlija (Ада Циганлија/Gypsy island) in Belgrade, the most popular Belgrade resort place. Island has been connected to the mainland (right bank of the river) with three causeways creating artificial "Lake Sava" (Савско језеро/Savsko jezero) with an area of 0,8 km³. It is nicknamed "Belgrade sea" (Београдско море/Beogradsko more) and it is known to attract up to 350.000 visitors daily in summer season. It also has high electricity production potential in it's upper course, up to 3,2 (including tributaries 4,7) billion kWh, which is not much used. Apart from already mentioned two power stations, there is a third, on the Sava itself, "Medvode" (17,8 MW), near Ljubljana. River bed, for the most length, is not regulated. That causes floods from time to time, which can affect as much as 5.000 km&2 of mostly very fertile land ( Posavina , Sava Valley). In 1981 and April 2006, the Sava even flooded lower parts of Belgrade. In 1977 & 1980 both federal and inter-republican agreements were signed about Sava's regulation, which were suppose to regulate its waters to prevent flooding, build new power stations, establish full navigation to Zagreb and ecologically protect its waters, with the final deadline being year 2000. However, not much was done and Yugoslavia itself broke up in 1991. Flowing below Ljubljana , the Sava created 90 km long Litija-Krško gorge and after flowing out of it, flood plain known as Krško Field (Krško Polje) and used to be much shorter. As Panonian Sea was receding, the Sava grew longer and longer, carving Sava Trench (Savski rov) through which it flows to the east. Together with lower courses of Bosnian rivers which became it's tributaries, it created huge flood plains. Becoming wide (at Šabac its 680 m wide, while on its mouths only 280 m), the Sava begins to meander and in history changed course many times, being pushed by the gentle slope of the Panonian bed to the south and by the force of its many right tributaries to the north. Old river beds turned into swamps and ponds known as ''mrtvaja'' (dead water) and ''starača'' (old water). Best known is one of the ponds in Serbia, one of the biggest wild birds reservation areas in Europe, Obedska Bara . TRIBUTARIES Right tributaries: in Slovenia: , Kolubara and Topčiderska Reka ; Left tributaries: in Slovenia: ; SETTLEMENTS The Sava connects three European capitals: Ljubljana in Slovenia, Zagreb in Croatia and Belgrade in Serbia and Montenegro. Even though Ljubljana is built on Sava's tributary Ljubljanica, as the city grew bigger it urbanized previous villages on Sava, like Črnuče or Zalog, so Sava now flows through Ljubljana's outskirts (in the same way , Sremska Mitrovica , Klenak and Šabac. Then it enters Belgrade City Area and flows through suburbs of Zabrežje , Obrenovac , Umka and Ostružnica until it finally empties into the Danube in Belgrade. NAVIGATION & TRAFFIC The Sava is navigable for 593 km, from its confluence with the Danube until the mouth of the Kupa at Sisak. Smaller crafts can navigate further upstream until Zagreb, but the plans of dredging it to become fully navigable are scrapped. The river is open for international flowing and conditions with regard to available depth are varying according to the meteorological circumstances. 1 Sava valley is also a natural way for land traffic, which includes railway and highway Belgrade-Zagreb and routes of oil and gas pipelines from Croatia to Serbia. As a result of all this traffic and densely populated and industrialized areas it flows through, river is very polluted and not much has been done to improve its conditions. TRADITION ". Even though name ''Sava'' became very common among (and not only South) Slavs, especially as a form of personal name, either male or female, and got 'Slavic tone', name of the river is actually not Slavic but Roman , who called it ''Savus''. POLITICS The Sava represents north-western boundary of the Balkan Peninsula . Due to the change of political climate, boundary also stretched or shrinked. In Yugoslav times it was considered that whole of Sava is the border (thus promoting mutuality among different Yugoslav nations), which placed even parts of Italy ( Trieste area) as a part of the Balkan peninsula. After splitting from Yugoslavia, in Slovenia and Croatia this was changed as a policy of shedding off any Yugoslav or Balkan feel, so the border was set to be the Sava-Kupa line, and then to the Adriatic . REFERENCES
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