The Cherna (Bulgarian: Черна) is a 48 km long river in southern Bulgaria, a left tributary of the Arda of the Maritsa drainage.

[1] The source of the river is the westernmost point of the whole Arda basin and springs in the Pereliksko–Prespanski Ridge of the western Rhodope Mountains at an altitude of 1,770 m, some 5 km southeast west of the village of Mugla.

Throughout its course it flows eastwards in a narrow canyon-like valley, with a single wide section at the town of Smolyan.

It flows into the Arda at an altitude of 128 m about 800 m south of the village of Leshtak.

[1] Its drainage basin covers a territory of 259 km2, or 4.47% of the Arda's total.