Stara Wisła in Wawer, River oxbow in Wawer, Warsaw, Poland

Stara Wisła is an old Vistula channel in the Wawer district of right-bank Warsaw, lying in the Vistula's inter-embankment zone near the Las, Zbytki and Kuligów settlements. Both its beginning and its mouth open into the Vistula: it starts at the level of Skalnicowa Street and ends at Kadetów Street, running about 4.3 km. It is fed by the river's waters at high levels, and its several drying oxbow sections are cut off from the Vistula bank by Kępa Wieloryb.

Stara Wisła is an old branch of the Vistula whose course appears on a Russian map of the river from 1875–77 as a single elongated island with smaller islets between it and the right bank. On an 1892 plan, drawn a few years after river regulation began, the branch still met the Vistula at a third, middle point, splitting today's Kępa Wieloryb into two islands; the northern one was labelled "Wyspa bezimienna".

The name Stara Wisła, "Old Vistula", is shared with a former meander of the Wilanówka on the opposite bank near Lisów, about 1 km in radius. The riverbed lies within the Natura 2000 bird protection area "Dolina Środkowej Wisły" (PLB140004) and the Warsaw Protected Landscape Area, mostly along its border.

The channel is fed by the Vistula only at high water levels, so in dry periods its sections become dried oxbows. The left bank, on the Kępa Wieloryb side, is 2–4 m high; the right bank is low, with the Miedzeszyński flood embankment about 5 m further on. The Rów Miedzeszyński and the Kanał Nowe Ujście enter near the Zbytki settlement.

On an 1892 map of the Vistula, the branch matching today's Stara Wisła met the main river at a third point in the middle, splitting today's Kępa Wieloryb into two islands; the northern one was labelled "Wyspa bezimienna" (Nameless Island). A Russian map of 1875–77 instead shows a single elongated island there, with several smaller islets between it and the right bank.