Lepenac

Infobox River | river_name = Lepenac (Lepenci, Лепенац, Лепенец)


caption =
origin = Kodža Balkan mountain, Kosovo
mouth = Vardar, at Skopje, Macedonia
basin_countries = KosovoMacedonia
length = 75 km
elevation = 1,820 m (source), 262 m (mouth)
discharge =
watershed = 770 km²

The Lepenac ( _sq. Lepenci, _mk. audio|Mk-Lepenec.ogg|Лепенец) is a river in southern Kosovo and northern Macedonia, a 75 km long left tributary to the Vardar river.

Sirinić

The Lepenac springs out on the Kodža Balkan mountain, east of the city of Prizren, at an altitude of 1,820 m. It flows eastward, into the župa of Sirinić, between the Žar mountain from the north and alongside the northern slopes of the Šara mountain from the south. From Šara mountain it receives many small tributaries, most notably the "Suva reka", as it passes next to the villages of Sevce and Jažince, the ski resort of Brezovica and a small town and regional center of Štrpce.

The Lepenac continues between the Šara mountain from the south and Nerodimka mountain from the north, next to the villages of Donja Bitinja, Gotovuša, Brod and Doganović, where the river makes an elbow turn to the south entering the Veliko Kosovo field.

Veliko Kosovo and Kačanik gorge

For several kilometers the Lepenac flows parallel to the Nerodimka river, flows next to the villages of Kovačevac and Bob, and receives its major tributary the Nerodimka from the left at the town of Kačanik, at the beginning of the Kačanik gorge.

The gorge, as the narrowest part of the Lepenac river valley, is located between the mountains of Šara on the west and Skopska Crna Gora on the east and connects the Veliko Kosovo and Skopje depressions. The gorge is 23 km long, carved in the limestone and slate terrain. Higher parts of the gorge are actually formed by the ancient outflow of the now extinct lake. The village of Pustenik and small town of Đeneral Janković are located in the gorge. After Đeneral Janković, the Lepenac becomes a border river between Serbia and Macedonia, before it leaves the gorge after the village of Sečište and leaves Serbia after the course of 60 km.

Skopje depression

For the remaining 15 km, the Lepenac flows through the low Skopje depression, part of the composite valley of the river Vardar. Immediately entering the Greater Skopje area, it receives several small streams from the left, from the Skopska Crna Gora mountain. It passes next to the ruins of the ancient city of Scupi, but has no major settlements on its Macedonian course, before it reaches the northern suburbs of Skopje, Bardovci and Novo Selo, and empties into the Vardar at the Skopje's northern borough of Gjorče Petrov at an altitude of 262 m.

Characteristics

The Lepenac belongs to the Aegean Sea drainage basin, with its own drainage area of 770 km² (695 km² in Serbia, 75 km² in Macedonia). It is not navigable.

The Kačanik gorge is a route for the both road and railway Kraljevo-Priština-Skopje.

The river has a potential for hydroelectrical production, but even though being a part of the former Ibar-Lepenac Hydrosystem project, it is not much used, either for energy production or irrigation.

The Lepenac was a part of the artificial bifurcation, as the Nerodimka connected both Lepenac and Sitnica rivers via a canal, thus connecting Aegean and Black Sea drainage basins, but the canal was covered after the World War II.

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