SOLO RIVER

Indonesian Bengawan Solo river, the longest in Java, Indonesia. It rises on the slope of Mount Lawu volcano (10,712 feet ) and the southern limestone range (Sewu Mountains) and flows north, then east to discharge into the Java Sea at a point opposite Madura Island, northwest of Surabaya. Its longest tributary, the Madiun, joins it near Ngawi, where it begins its 20-mile (32-kilometre) passage through the Kendeng Mountains (the central limestone range) and emerges into the Solo valley, where the river has little gradient and meanders over the lowland. The river's marshy delta is used for fish ponds. To reduce silting of the strait between Madura and the northern approach to Surabaya on Java, the main mouth of the Solo was diverted north. In the dry season much of the riverbed is dry.