[8] The Ancient Greek name of Dniester, Tyras (Τύρας), is from Scythian tūra, meaning "rapid".

[citation needed] The names of the Don and Danube are also from the same Iranian word *dānu "river".

[citation needed] Edward Gibbon refers to the river both as the Niester and Dniester in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

The Dniester rises in Ukraine, near the city of Turka, close to the border with Poland, and flows toward the Black Sea.

Along the lower half of the Dniester, the western bank is high and hilly while the eastern one is low and flat.

According to Herodotus (iv.51) it rose in a large lake, whilst Ptolemy (iii.5.17, 8.1 &c.) places its sources in Mount Carpates (the modern Carpathian Mountains), and Strabo (ii) says that they are unknown.

It ran in an easterly direction parallel with the Ister (lower Danube), and formed part of the boundary between Dacia and Sarmatia.

It fell into the Pontus Euxinus to the northeast of the mouth of the Ister, the distance between them being 900 stadia – approximately 210 km (130 mi) – according to Strabo (vii.

[15] During World War II, German and Romanian forces battled Soviet troops on the western bank of the river.