The Drina River (Řeka Drina)

The Drina river is 346 km long, and originates from the merging of the Tara and Piva at Šćepan Polje in Montenegro. It flows through Montenegro,Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. The Drina is the largest tributary of the river Sava into which it flows near Sremska Rača. The Drina´s course through Serbia is 220 km long.

Some of the major tributaries of the Drina from the left side are the Sutjeska, Bistrica, Prača, Drinjača and Janja rivers, and on the right the Ćehotina, Lim, Rzav, Ljuboviđa and Jadar rivers.

Major towns located on the Drina are Foča, Goražde, Višegrad, Bajina Bašta and Zvornik.

The raw power of the Drina has been tamed by dams and lakes (Višegradsko, Perućac and Zvorničko lakes), which has detracted from but not destroyed the beauty of the Drina´s canyons. Three hydroelectric power stations have been built on the Drina: Višegrad, Bajina Bašta and Zvornik.

Of its bridges, the most famous is the old bridge in Višegrad, the endowment of Sokollu Mehmed Pasha (Mehmed paša Sokolović), built in 1571. The bridge was described in the novel The Bridge on the Drina by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Ivo Andrić. The Drina river was a boundary between the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. In 1914-15, major military operations were mounted along the length of the Drina, then the border between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. Its winding course has been immortalised in the local saying, "Who will straighten the crooked Drina?" used to refer to any task that is known to be futile.

In the summer months there is rafting on the Drina, the Drina Regatta and the Spust Niz Drinu (`Sail Down the Drina´), in which all kinds of boats participate.