Radika

The Radika is a river in southern Kosovo and western Macedonia, a 70km-long right tributary to the Black Drin river.The Radika proper is 52km long, but measured from the most distant source in its watershed, that of the Crni Kamen river, it is 70km long.OriginThe Crni Kamen springs out from the northern slopes of the Vraca mountain, the southern extension of the Šar Mountains, under the Golema Vraca peak . The 'Guri i Zi' 'Crni Kamen' originally flows westward, through the Gora region, bends around the Vraca and sharply turns to the south and empties into the Kosovo-Macedonian border river Qafa e Kadies Ćafa Kadis .The Ćafa Kadis originates from the southern slopes of the Vraca mountain and northern slopes of the Mangulova Kula mountain, another extension of the Šar Mountains. It flows westwards, on the northern section of the mountain of Ničipurska planina and for several kilometers forms the Kosovo-Macedonian border. After it receives the Crni Kamen from the right and another stream coming from Kosovo, the Ćafa Kadis turns south into the Macedonian proper again and from this point it is known as the Radika.Upper RadikaUpper Radika is just 8km long and due to the human managing of its course, it belongs to the Aegean Sea drainage basin, unlike the latter course of the Lower Radika which belongs to the Adriatic Sea drainage basin. It flows to the south between the mountains of Korab to the west and Ničipurska planina to the east. At the village of Volkovija, an artificial bifurcation is created, as the waters of the Upper Radika are conducted into the artificial Mavrovo Lake at the village of Mavrovi Anovi and from there, via the Mavrovo system of the hydroelectric power plants, into the Vardar river (in this bifurcational flow, it even receives a tributary, small stream of Beličica from the right).