Katun
Katun - the largest Altaya river with a length of 688 km and a basin area of 60900 km2. By the number of tributaries, and there are 254 with an aggregate length of 708 km, Katuni can envy any river.
The name of the river arose from the Altai word "kadyn", translated as "mistress", it came from the ancient Turkic word "katyn" ( river ). Speaking of the river, local peoples have laid a beautiful legend. Khan Altai had a beautiful daughter, Kadyn. Khan was well aware that soon she needed to be married, but he terribly did not want this, then he ordered to build a fortress high in the mountains for her, so that not a single person comes to marry her.
Kadyn lived in her castle alone, but soon birds began to fly to her and they sang about the beauty of the young man Biya, who lived in the steppes. Kadyn heard the songs and decided to run away to the young man when his father fell asleep. She jumped off the wall of the fortress and rushed towards her love. Khan woke up and did not find his daughter, then he sent the most powerful and clever warriors in pursuit. The girl deftly ran between stones and mountains, further and further running away from her pursuers, only the soldier Babyrkhan managed to capture her by the sleeve, but he came off.
Biy and Kadyn met, merged into a single whole and together headed for Obi. Now beloved ones are never inseparable, and the khan in rage wrapped his soldiers in the mountains, and called these mountains their names: Saryk, Sartykpai and Babyrkhan.
The place where the Katun and Biya rivers unite is extremely beautiful - both rivers are powerful and have a different color of water. From summer to autumn, Katuni has turquoise water, and Biya has a gray water color. In the spring, the difference is not so noticeable - Katuni has muddy water, and Biya is clean. When merging, the rivers do not mix for some time and, creating a striped flow of water.
Katun is divided into 3 regions by the nature of the movement: from the source to the Koxa River, from Koksa to Sumulta and further the section to the merger with the Biya River. Near the river you can meet such representatives of the fauna as: bears, foxes, wolves, lynxes, moose, mountain goats, marals, wolverines, sable. From the birds, dummies, black grouse and ripples often come across. Also, Katun is very rich in fish, especially a lot of times and charius, and in the lower reaches of the river is a flood, pike and perch.
