The Botunya (Bulgarian: Ботуня) is a river in northwestern Bulgaria, a right tributary of the Ogosta, itself a right tributary of the Danube. With a length of 69km, it is the Ogosta's second largest tributary after the Skat.[1]
Geography
The river takes its source under the name Stara reka at an altitude of 1,550m east of the summit of Todorini Kukli (1,785m) in the western part of the Balkan Mountains. It flows north in a deep forested valley until the town of Varshets and then crosses the Varshets Valley in direction northeast. The river bends northwards at the village of Dolno Ozirovo and downstream of Stoyanovo it again turns to the northeast, forming a wide valley covered with croplands. It enters Vratsa Province and turns northwest after receiving its largest tributary, the Varteshnitsa. In that section the river valley becomes asymmetrical. The river flows into the Ogosta at an altitude of 100m about a kilometer northeast of the town of Boychinovtsi.[1]
Its drainage basin covers a territory of 732km2, or 23.2% of the Ogosta's total.[1] The high water is in April and the low water is in August. The average annual discharge at Stoyanovo is 3.9m3/s.[1]
A 6.5km stretch of the third class III-162 road Lakatnik–Stoyanovo–Beli Izvor follows the river's left bank in its upper course. In the same section is also a 3.4km stretch of the third class III-812 road Berkovitsa–Varshets. An 18.9km section of the third class III-101 road Vratsa–Boychinovtsi–Glozhene runs parallel to its left bank between Krivodol and Boychinovsti.[2]
Мичев (Michev), Николай (Nikolay); Михайлов (Mihaylov), Цветко (Tsvetko); Вапцаров (Vaptsarov), Иван (Ivan); Кираджиев (Kiradzhiev), Светлин (Svetlin) (1980). Географски речник на България[Geographic Dictionary of Bulgaria] (in Bulgarian). София (Sofia): Наука и култура (Nauka i kultura).
