Erzen

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River and a tourist attraction in Albania

title: "Erzen" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["rivers-of-albania", "geography-of-tirana-county", "drainage-basins-of-the-adriatic-sea", "dajti-national-park", "braided-rivers-in-albania"] description: "River and a tourist attraction in Albania" topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzen" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary River and a tourist attraction in Albania ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox river"]

Field	Value
name	Erzen
image	River Erzen close to Iba.jpg
image_caption	Erzen flowing near the village of Ibë
source1	Mali me Gropa, Shëngjergj
source1_location	Tirana County
source1_coordinates
source1_elevation	1200 m
mouth	Lalzi Bay
mouth_location	Adriatic Sea
mouth_coordinates
mouth_elevation	0 m
subdivision_type1	Country
subdivision_name1	Albania
length_km	109
length_ref
basin_size_km2	760
::

The Erzen (Erzeni) is a river in central Albania. The 109 km long Erzen has a 760 km² catchment area, including the southern Tirana District and eastern Durrës District.

Name

The ancient Illyrian name of the river was Ardaxanos, which is a derivative of *daksa "water", "sea", also found in the name of the island Daxa, of the Illyrian tribe Dassareti and of the Chaonian tribe Dexari. It is mentioned for the first time by Polybius in the 2nd century BC. The contemporary Albanian name Erzen (definite form: Erzeni) evolved from the ancient Ardaxanos through Albanian sound changes.

Overview

The river has its origin in the Mali me Gropa 1200 m elevation above sea level and is some 25 km east of Tirana near Shëngjergj, flowing northwest through Petrelë and Sukth to the Adriatic Sea 12 km north of Durrës. Significant tributaries of Erzen include Lake Farkë, Korrë, Lanë, Murdhar, Shtërmen and Zhëllimë.

The river passes through the city of Tirana, only a few kilometers from its southern end. Only a small range of hills separates the valley of the Erzen river with the Lana, Tirana, Zeza and Tërkuza rivers that form the Ishëm river. On the southwestern outskirts at Yzberisht the transition from the plane to the Erzen valley is barely perceptible. The mouth is between Durrës and the headland of Cape of Rodon at Lalzi bay. The average discharge rate at the mouth is 18.1 m³ / s, the highest discharge rate for the year exceeds minimum to the eleven-time. Its drainage area which includes all Tirana District and a part of Durrës area is about 700 square km.

Apparently, all twenty-two victims of the 1951 massacre were dumped into the river on Enver Hoxha's orders, only to later be found wrapped tightly in barbed tape.

Gallery

Erzen_Petrela.jpg|Erzen Valley seen from Petrelë Castle Dmma15.jpg|Bridge near Shijak in 1914 Dajtji_7.jpg|Skorana Gorge

References

"Coastal vegetation of the Lalzi bay (Albania)".
"TREGUES SIPAS QARQEVE INDICATORS BY PREFECTURES".
"The coastline of Albania : morphology, evolution and coastal management issues".
(1987). "Beiträge zur Geschichte der Besiedlung Nord- und Mitteldeutschlands mit Balkanslaven". O. Sagner.
Demiraj, Shaban. (2006). "The origin of the Albanians: linguistically investigated". [[Academy of Sciences of Albania]].
"Hydronymica Albanica — A Survey of River Names in Albania".

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