1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Manych

MANYCH, a river and depression in S. Russia, stretching between the lower river Don and the Caspian Sea, through the Don Cossacks territory and between the government of Astrakhan on the N. and that of Stavropol on the S. During the greater part of the year it is either dry or occupied in part by a string of saline lakes (limans or ilmens); but in spring when the streams swell which empty into it, the water flows in two opposite directions from the highest point (near Shara-Khulusun). The western stream flows westwards, with an inclination northwards, until it reaches the Don, though when the latter river is running high, its water penetrates some 60 miles up the Manych. The eastern stream dies away in the sandy steppe about 25 miles from the Caspian, though it is said sometimes to reach the Kuma through the Huiduk, a tributary of the Kuma. Total length of the depression, 330 m. For its significance as a former (geologic) connexion between the Sea of Azov and the Caspian Sea, see Caspian Sea. By some authorities the Manych depression is taken as part of the boundary between Europe and Asia.