Manych [key], two rivers, SE European Russia. The Western Manych, c.200 mi (320 km) long, rises near Stavropol in the N Caucasus and flows NW through Lake Manych-Gudilo into the lower Don River. The Eastern Manych rises in a marshy area and flows c.100 mi (160 km) east to a system of salt lakes and marshes c.75 mi (120 km) W of the Caspian Sea, but it reaches the sea only in rare spring floods. In spring the Western and Eastern Manych join in the center of the Manych Depression, a broad, valleylike lowland extending c.350 mi (560 km) southeast from the lower Don to the Caspian Sea. A variant spelling is Manich.
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