River
Aksu River
282 km from source to mouth · Kyrgyzstan.
KyrgyzstanFlows into Tarim River1st longest in Kyrgyzstan
In numbers
Length
282km
Average flow
250m³/s
Basin
12,900km²
Drop
2,311m
from 3,335 m to 1,024 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
282 km of river and 2 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 3,335 m
- 197 kmKumaric Rivertributary
- 199 kmToxkan Hetributary
- 282 kmTarim Riverat 1,024 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in China and Kyrgyzstan
At the mouth it carries 249 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 10 seconds. It drops from 3,335 m to 1,024 m, 8.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 12,900 km², about the size of BS. 942,000 people live in it. Highest water: from July to August; lowest: from November to February. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Ālā'ĕrLargest city on its banks · 126,259 people
- Aksu Hongqipo Airport (AKU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 114 km from the city
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Aksu River, month by month
Highest water: from July to August
Lowest water: from November to February. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 3.5 m³/s in the lowest month to 270 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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The basin
Aksu River: the basin in numbers
45,165 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 942,000people live in the basin
- 21/km²people per km²
- 3,108maverage altitude of the basin
- 235mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -1.0°Caverage air temperature
- 2%protected areas
- 8%glaciers
- 38%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 5% Cropland
- 44% Pasture
- 8% Ice
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Aksu River: what you find on the way
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Aksu River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
2mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (2)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Gory Adyrtor7.0 km away
- Chrebet Katta-Asjutor14 km away
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Tarim River
China2,030 km920 m³/sTributaries (2)
Also: Toxkan He, Kumaric River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
China858 km170 m³/s0 km awayHotan RiverChina1,035 km140 m³/s6 km awayKarakash RiverChina740 km70 m³/s266 km awayYurungkax HeChina450 km2.3 m³/s266 km awayKashgar RiverChina765 km72 m³/s288 km awayCharyn River
Kazakhstan427 km35 m³/s403 km awayChilik RiverKazakhstan245 km32 m³/s403 km awayAt-Bashi RiverKyrgyzstan180 km33 m³/s456 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q421658) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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