The Kotuy River is a river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 in Krasnoyarsk Krai

Krasnoyarsk Krai

Krasnoyarsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It is the second largest federal subject after the Sakha Republic, and Russia's largest krai, occupying an area of , which is 13% of the country's total territory. The administrative center of the krai is the city of Krasnoyarsk...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. It is one of the two rivers that form the Khatanga River

Khatanga River

The Khatanga River is a river in Krasnoyarsk Krai in Russia. It begins at the confluence of the rivers Kotuy and Kheta. The Khatanga River is long; the area of its basin is 364,000 km². It flows into the Khatanga Gulf of the Laptev Sea, forming an estuary...

; the other one being the Kheta River

Kheta River

Kheta River is a river in Krasnoyarsk Krai in Russia, left composite of the Khatanga River. The length of the river is 604 km. The area of its drainage basin is 100,000 km². The Kheta is formed by the confluence of the Ayan and Ayakli Rivers, both of which originate in the Putoran plateau...

.

The Kotuy River is 1409 kilometres (875.5 mi) long; the area

Area

Area is a quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional surface or shape in the plane. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat...

 of its basin

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

 is 176,000 km². It freezes up in the late September–early October and breaks up in the late May–early June. Its main tributaries

Tributary

A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...

 are the Moyero, the Kotuykan, the Eriyechka, the Changada, and the Tukalan.