Sviyaga River

Sviyaga River
Sviyaga River at Ulyanovsk
Origin	Ulyanovsk Oblast
Mouth	Kuybyshev Reservoir, Volga
Basin countries	Russia
Length	375 km (233 mi)
Source elevation	100 m (330 ft)
Avg. discharge	1,590 m3/s (56,000 cu ft/s) (near mouth)
Basin area	16,700 km2 (6,400 sq mi)

The Sviyaga (Russian: Свияга, Tatar: Cyrillic Зөя, Latin Zöyä, Chuvash: Сĕве) is a river in the Ulyanovsk Oblast and Tatarstan, a right tributary of the Volga River. It is 375 kilometres (233 mi) long, and its drainage basin covers 16,700 square kilometres (6,400 sq mi). The Sviyaga River flows into the Sviyaga Cove of the Kuybyshev Reservoir, west of Kazan. It freezes up in November or December and stays under the ice until April or May. Major tributaries are the Arya, Bula, Karla, Kubnya, and Tosha rivers.

The city of Ulyanovsk is along the Sviyaga River. In Ulyanovsk, the Sviyaga flows only a few miles away from the Volga, but their confluence is about 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Ulyanovsk.

The castle of Sviyazhsk, which dates to 1551, is on the island in Sviyaga Cove of the Kuybyshev Reservoir.