History

 

Short History of the Delta and commune Saint George

 

Legend says that in 1821,a turkish war ship arrived in St.George,the very day locals celebrating the great martyr christian Saint George.

A pasha on board the vessel was impressed by the atmosphere in the village-fishermaen,livestock breeders,women and children of the village singing and making merry toghether,celebrating the christian saint who protects rebirth of vegetation.

Ottoman compared this celebration Hidirlezul s home( similar fest) and hence came to be called village Hidirlez,CADARLEZ.

Last name, Cadarlez,has officially remained until 1901 when the Romanian authorities have changed again in Saint George.

Cadarlez or Saint George is still here,the same beautiful village with "haholi" harsh,honest,hospitable and hardworking,accustomed as dawn to take nets and climb into the boat,the waves of the Danube,as local custom for hundreds of years now.

The residents speak a dialect of Ukrainian,cossack descendents emigrated in the Delta after 1775 when Dust Catherine the Great abolished "Republic" of the Don Cossack Zaporozhian. 

 

The modern Danube Delta began to form after 4000 BCE in a bay of the Black Sea, when the sea rose to its present level. A sandy barrier blocked the Danube bay where the river initially built its delta. Upon filling the bay with sediment, the delta advanced outside this barrier-blocked estuary after 3500 BCE, building several successive lobes: the St. George I (3500–1600 BCE), the Sulina (1600–0 BCE), the St. George II (0 BC–present) and the Chilia or Kilia (1600 CE–present). Several other internal lobes were constructed in the lakes and lagoons bordering the Danube Delta to the north (Chilia I and II) and toward the south (Dunavatz). Much of the alluvium in the delta and major expansion of its surface area in the form of lobes resulted from soil erosion associated with the clearing of forestsin the Danube basin during the 1st and 2nd millennium. Geologist Liviu Giosan told The New York Times:

Probably 40 percent of the Delta was built in the last 1000 years. Finding that was like a eureka moment.

At present the delta suffers from a large sediment deficit, after the construction of dams on the Danube and its tributaries in the later half of the 20th century. However, construction of a dense network of shallow channels in the delta over the same period attenuated the deficit on the delta plain but increased erosion along the coast. The Danube Delta is a low alluvial plain, mostly covered by wetlands and water. It consists of an intricate pattern of marshes, channels, streamlets and lakes. The average altitude is 0.52 m, with 20% of the territory below sea level, and more than half not exceeding one meter in altitude. Dunes on the most extensive strand plains of the delta (Letea and Caraorman strand plains) stand higher (12.4 m and 7 m respectively). The largest lakes are lakes Dranov (21.7 km²), Roșu (14.5 km²) and Gorgova (13.8 km²).