Lab (river)

The Lab (Serbian Cyrillic: Лаб) or Llap (Albanian: Llapi), is a river in the north-eastern part of Kosovo.[lower-alpha 1] The 72 km (45 mi) long right tributary to the Sitnica river, it is the main river in the Malo Kosovo depression. Near its origin are remains of medieval palace of Serbian king Milutin (1282-1321) called Vrhlab (Serbian Cyrillic: Врхлаб, which means origin of the Lab).

Lab
Llap
The Lab in Podujevo
Physical characteristics
Source 
  locationKopaonik mountain, Kosovo[lower-alpha 1]
Mouth 
  location
Sitnica river, south of Vučitrn, Kosovo
  coordinates
42.7553°N 21.0172°E / 42.7553; 21.0172
Length72 km (45 mi)
Basin size950 km2 (370 sq mi)
Basin features
ProgressionSitnicaIbarWest MoravaGreat MoravaDanubeBlack Sea

Name etymology

The etymology of the river's name is derived from a pre-Slavic form Alb that underwent linguistic metathesis within Slavic giving the final form as Lab.[1]

Upper Lab

The Lab originates from the Kopaonik mountain, between the Pilatovica and Bela Stena peaks, on the border of Kosovo and Serbia. The river flows southward, through the region of Upper Lab, by the villages of Marince, Bela Stena, Murgula, Brece and Metohija, receives several smaller streams from the Kopaonik and after it passes the village of Donja Pakaštica, the Lab enters the Malo Kosovo field.

Malo Kosovo

Malo Kosovo is located between the mountains of Kopaonik (north) and Prugovac (south) and, unlike the Gornji Lab, it is densely populated. After the villages of Dobri Do, Bajčina, Perane and Letance, the Lab reaches the town of Podujevo. At this point, the river bends gently to the southwest and its valley becomes the route for the regional road and railway Niš-Pristina. After the larger village of Glavnik, the Lab receives from the left the Batlava river at the village of Lužane, and from the right its major tributary, the Kačandolska reka by the village of Donje Ljupče.

Veliko Kosovo

At Vrani Do and Besinje villages, the Lab slowly turns west, passing the villages of Raškovo, Miloševo, Prilužje, and Reka, where it empties into the Sitnica. The Lab drains an area of 950 km2 (367 sq mi), belongs to the Black Sea drainage basin and it is not navigable.

Notes and references

Notes:

  1. Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the 2013 Brussels Agreement. Kosovo is currently recognized as an independent state by 97 out of the 193 United Nations member states. In total, 112 UN member states recognized Kosovo at some point, of which 15 later withdrew their recognition.

References:

  1. Županić, Niko (1936). Značenje barvnega atributa v imeny ,,Crvena Hrvatska’’. Etnolog. p. 362. "Na ozemlju Dukljaninovic Bete Hrvatske se je namreč nahajalo mesto Lab, a stara srbska država Raša se je po njem razprostirala ad Lapiam et Lap, kar gotovo meri na župo in reko Lab, pritok Sitnice na Kosovem polju. Tu je menda nastopila znana slovanska likvidna metateza alb > lab, ali je treba pripomniti, da so ti koreni predslovanski, morda celo predindoevropski, kakor n. pr. pri Labi na severu (Albis). [In the territory of Croatia's Dukljaninovic has a place located called Lab, but the old Serbian state Raša is after stretching to Lapi or Lap, which certainly is measured at the region and the Lab river, a tributary of Sitnica in Kosovo Polje. There is apparently a known Slavic metathesis alb> lab, or these pre-Slavic roots, perhaps even in pre Indoeuropean as n. pr. the Elbe in the north (Albis).]"
  • 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
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