page_title: Sava
hierarchical_section_title: Sava
caption_attribution_description: This is a map of the Sava River watershed. I, Karl Musser, created it based on USGS data. Français&#160;: Carte de la Posavina.
context_page_description: The Sava is a river in Central Europe, a right tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia then against that nation and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and through Serbia, feeding the Danube in its capital, Belgrade. The Sava forms the main northern limit of the Balkan Peninsula, and the southern edge of the Pannonian Plain.
  The Sava is 990 kilometres long, including the 45-kilometre Sava Dolinka headwater rising in Zelenci, Slovenia. It is the greatest tributary of the Danube by volume of water, and second-largest after the Tisza in terms of catchment area and length. It drains a significant portion of the Dinaric Alps region, through the major tributaries of Drina, Bosna, Kupa, Una, Vrbas, Lonja, Kolubara, Bosut and Krka. The Sava is one of the longest rivers in Europe and among a handful of European rivers so long without estuary or delta.
  The population in the Sava River basin is estimated at 8,176,000, and is shared by three capital cities: Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade. The Sava is about ​²⁄₃-navigable for larger vessels: from the confluence of the Kupa in Sisak a few miles below Zagreb.
context_section_description: The Sava (/ˈsɑːvə/; [ˈsàːʋa], Serbo-Croatian: [sǎːʋa], Serbian Cyrillic: Сава, Hungarian: Száva) is a river in Central Europe, a right tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia then against that nation and Bosnia and Herzegovina (as a natural border), and through Serbia, feeding the Danube in its capital, Belgrade. The Sava forms the main northern limit of the Balkan Peninsula, and the southern edge of the Pannonian Plain.
  The Sava is 990 kilometres (615 miles) long, including the 45-kilometre (28 mi) Sava Dolinka headwater rising in Zelenci, Slovenia. It is the greatest tributary of the Danube by volume of water, and second-largest after the Tisza in terms of catchment area (97,713 square kilometres (37,727 square miles)) and length. It drains a significant portion of the Dinaric Alps region, through the major tributaries of Drina, Bosna, Kupa, Una, Vrbas, Lonja, Kolubara, Bosut and Krka. The Sava is one of the longest rivers in Europe and among a handful of European rivers so long without estuary or delta.
  The population in the Sava River basin is estimated at 8,176,000, and is shared by three capital cities: Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade. The Sava is about ​²⁄₃-navigable for larger vessels: from the confluence of the Kupa in Sisak a few miles below Zagreb.
  The name is believed to be derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sewh₁ ('to take liquid', whence the English word sup) and the ending *eh₂, so that it literally means 'that which waters [the ground]'.
caption: Map of the Sava watershed
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