VILYUY RIVER

also spelled Viliui river in east-central Siberia, flowing mainly through Yakutiya in eastern Russia. The longest tributary of the Lena, it has a length of 1,647 mi (2,650 km) and a drainage basin of about 190,000 sq mi (491,000 sq km). Rising on the Central Siberian Plateau in the Evenky autonomous okrug, it flows in a winding course, first east (soon entering Yakutiya), then south and southeast, then generally east again, until it joins the Lena about 200 mi northwest of Yakutsk. The Vilyuy Valley is sparsely populated; small riparian settlements are Vilyuysk (founded 1634), Verkhnevilyuysk, and Suntar (the traditional head of navigation, about 500 mi from the river mouth). In 1954 rich diamond deposits were discovered at Mirny, near the river 450 mi from its mouth. Access roads and an airport were built and the Vilyuy Dam complex was begun, near the mine site, on the Vilyuy at Chernyshevsky. Power is used for the diamond concentrators at Mirny, and a power line extends 250 mi north to diamond deposits at Aykhal (1964) and Udachny (1968). The dam project has radically altered both the natural fluvial regime of the Vilyuy and the economy of its valley.