Timiş Tamiš (Тамиш)
The Tamiš river near Pančevo
Countries	Romania (Caraş-Severin County, Timiş County) Serbia (Vojvodina Province)
Length	km ( mi)
Watershed	km² ( mi²)
Discharge at	*
- average	m³/s ( ft³/s)
Source
- location	Semenic Mountains, Romania
Mouth	Danube near Pančevo, Serbia
Major tributaries
- left	Brebu, Slatina, Goleţ, Bucoşniţa, Cerneţu, Petroşniţa, Valea Mare, Vălişoara, Măcicaş/Rugiu, Mâtnic, Vâna Mare/Vena Mare, Spaia, Ştiuca, Spaici, Timişana, Şurgani, Pogăniş, Timişul Mort, Găvojdia, Lanca Birda, Bârzava/Brzava, Moraviţa
- right	Grădişte, Semenic, Teregova, Criva, Râul Rece (Hideg), Pietrele Albe, Râul Lung, Armeniş, Sadoviţa, Ilova, Groapa Copacului, Bolvaşniţa, Zlagna, Sebeş, Valea Mare, Bistra, Calova, Macioviţa, Vălişorul, Tincova, Cernola, Nădrag, Slatina, Măguri, Tapia, Iarcoş, Timişaţ

The Timiş or Tamiš (Romanian: Timiş; Serbian: Тамиш or Tamiš; German: Temesch; Hungarian: Temes) is a 359 km long river rising in the Semenic Mountains, southern Carpathian Mountains, Caraş-Severin County, Romania. It flows through the Banat region and flows into the Danube near Pančevo, in northern Serbia.

Name

In Antiquity, the river was known as Tibiscus and Tibisis.

Characteristics

Drainage area covers 13.085 km² (in Romania 8.085 km², in Serbia 5.000 km²). Through Danube, it belongs to the Black Sea drainage basin.

After entering Banat, the river becomes slow and meandering, causing floods in rainy years. Especially devastating were the floods of 2005, when the villages Boka and Jaša Tomić were badly damaged. On April 20, 2005, a level of 844 centimeters was recorded, the highest ever since the measurments began. In the spring of 2007 works on the elevation of the embankments on the both sides of the river began, 11,5 kilometers on the right and 13,2 kilometers on the left bank. The embankments will be 30 to 70 centimeters higher than they are now and being higher than 8,5 meters should prevent any future floodings. ^[1]

In its lower course, the river is regulated, and for the last 53 km it is navigable. Most important port is heavily industrialized Pančevo. In some parts of the low, marshy areas created by the floods, several huge fishponds are created, most notably being Banatski Despotovac, Uzdin, Sakule and Slatina.

Tributaries

The river flows through Romania for 241 km, receiving on its course many smaller tributaries: Râul Rece, Slatina, Valea Mare, Rugiu River, Pârâul Lung, Armeniş River, Sebeş, Bistra, Şurgani River, Timişana, Pogăniş River, Timişul Mort River and Vena Mare. In its 118 km course through Serbia it has only one tributary, albeit the longest one, Brzava.

Settlements

Romania

Major cities in its Romanian course are Caransebeş and Lugoj, smaller places include:

• Căvăran
• Rudna
• Teregova
• Armeniş
• Sadova Veche
• Slatina-Timiş
• Bucoşniţa
• Petroşniţa
• Valea Timişului
• Prisian
• Buchin
• Jupa
• Zăgujeni
• Prisaca
• Căvăran (Constantin Daicoviciu)
• Sacu
• Jean
• Gavojdia
• Lugojel
• Coştei
• Bazoş
• Uliuc
• Urseni
• Şag
• Parţa
• Cebza
• Crai Nou, TimişCrai Nou
• Gad
• Grănicerii

One of the major Romanian cities, Timişoara, even though its name indicates it, is not settled on the river, but on another Romanian-Serbian river, Bega.

Serbia

• Jaša Tomić
• Šurjan
• Boka
• Sečanj
• Neuzina
• Banatski Despotovac
• Botoš
• Tomaševac
• Orlovat
• Idvor
• Farkaždin
• Sakule
• Čenta
• Baranda
• Opovo
• Sefkerin
• Glogonj
• Jabuka
• Pančevo

Pančevački Rit

Main article: Pančevački Rit

The river's old mouth into the Danube was some 40 km to the north-west, between villages of Čenta and Surduk, thus it was shorter. Canal Karaš (Cyrillic: Караш) remained marking old river bed, and the area bounded by the old and new river beds and the Danube, is called Pančevački Rit (Marches of Pančevo, Cyrillic: Панчевачки Рит). The 400 km² large wetland was constantly flooded, but since World War II it has been drained part by part and almost half of it is turned into a very fertile patch of land, suitable especially for cultivating grains and vegetables. It is managed by Serbian largest agricultural company, "PKB Beograd", which almost exclusively provides food for 2 million people in wider Belgrade area, thus Pančevački Rit is commonly nicknamed Granary of Belgrade. Stockbreeding is also very intensive, and so are fishery and hunting.

Many meandering canals and bogs remained in the marsh: slow streams of Vizelj, Dunavac, Sibnica, Butuš, Rogoznica, Buk, Belanoš and Sebeš, and large bogs of Reva, Veliko Blato (2 km²), Sebeš and Široka bara. In the south, area ends with a river island (ada) Kožara (0,44 km²).

After being almost uninhabited before 1945, today its population density is above average for Serbia as a whole, since some of the fastest growing suburbs of Belgrade (Borča, Padinska Skela and Krnjača) are built there. The whole area of Pančevački Rit belongs administratively to Belgrade's municipality of Palilula.

References

General references

• Mala Prosvetina Enciklopedija, Third edition (1985); Prosveta; ISBN 86-07-00001-2
• Jovan Đ. Marković (1990): Enciklopedijski geografski leksikon Jugoslavije; Svjetlost-Sarajevo; ISBN 86-01-02651-6
• Administraţia Naţională Apelor Române - Cadastrul Apelor - Bucureşti
• Institutul de Meteorologie şi Hidrologie - Rîurile României - Bucureşti 1971

Notes

1. ^ Politika daily, May 5, 2007, page 08

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