Nemunėlis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nemunėlis River, Mēmele River
Mēmele in Bauska city
Origin	Lūšna lake in Rokiškis district
Mouth	Lielupe River
Basin countries	Lithuania and Latvia
Length	191 km
Avg. discharge	95 m³/s
Basin area	4048 km²

Nemunėlis (Latvian: Mēmele) is a river in Northern Lithuania and in Southern Latvia. It originates 6 km south of Rokiškis. It flows for 191 kilometres (75 km in Lithuania, 76 km on the Lithuania-Latvia border and remaining in Latvia) before its confluence with Mūša River, near city Bauska city, forming the new Lielupe River.

This river does not belong to the basin of the larger Neman River, but the names of both rivers are related in several languages:

• in Lithuanian language, "Nemunėlis" is a diminutive form of "Nemunas" (Neman River)
• in German language, "Memel" is used for both the Neman River and Klaipėda city, and "Memele" is its diminutive form
• in Latvian language, the river is called "Mēmele", derived either from the German use or directly from Old Prussian language which supposedly means "surrounded by water"
• in Estonian language, it is called "Memele jõgi"

The European Union gave 100,000 euro to establish tourist routes along the Nemunėlis. It is expected that the Latvian and Lithuanian initiative will be completed in 2007, as new kayak and boat rental shops will open and new campsites, tourist guides, and informational tablets will be prepared.^[1]

[edit] References