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River

Angara

1,779 km from source to mouth · Russia.

RussiaRussiaFlows into Yenisei

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouthAngarskUst’-Ilimsk
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

1,779km

Average flow

4,500m³/s

Basin

1,039,000km²

Drop

374m

from 449 m to 75 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

1,779 km of river and 36 stops on the way: 9 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

449 m75 m
Lake Baikalat 449 m0 km
Kitoy Rivertributary122 km
Bratsk Reservoir4,811 km²627 km
Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station627 km
Ust-Ilimsk Reservoir1,703 km²898 km
Ust’-Ilimsk100,271 people900 km
River Kovatributary1,170 km
Shivera Kashina1,195 km
Karabulatributary1,395 km
Irkineyevatributary1,418 km
Yeniseiat 75 m1,779 km
05001,0001,5001,779 km
  1. 0 kmLake Baikalat 449 m
  2. 41 kmNovogrudinina1,076 people
  3. 52 kmLake Baikal31,968 km²
  4. 52 kmIrkutsk Hydroelectric Power Station
  5. 57 kmYunosti Island
  6. 59 kmGlazkovsky Bridge, Irkutsk
  7. 60 kmIrkutsk605,708 people
  8. 61 kmUshakovkatributary
  9. 61 kmIrkuttributary
  10. 77 kmKudatributary
  11. 82 kmMeget8,370 people
  12. 103 kmAngarsk243,158 people
  13. 122 kmKitoy Rivertributary
  14. 133 kmUsol’ye-Sibirskoye85,900 people
  15. 152 kmBelayatributary
  16. 182 kmSvirsk14,717 people
  17. 627 kmBratsk Reservoir4,811 km²
  18. 627 kmBratsk Hydroelectric Power Station
  19. 871 kmIlimtributary
  20. 897 kmUst-Ilimsk Hydroelectric Power Station
  21. 898 kmUst-Ilimsk Reservoir1,703 km²
  22. 900 kmUst’-Ilimsk100,271 people
  23. 901 kmPorog Tolstyy Byk
  24. 929 kmPorog Tushamskiy Byk
  25. 986 kmKatatributary
  26. 1,170 kmRiver Kovatributary
  27. 1,195 kmShivera Kashina
  28. 1,244 kmKodatributary
  29. 1,253 kmBoguchany Dam
  30. 1,274 kmChadobetstributary
  31. 1,304 kmMura Rivertributary
  32. 1,369 kmBoguchany11,209 people
  33. 1,395 kmKarabulatributary
  34. 1,418 kmIrkineyevatributary
  35. 1,469 kmKamenkatributary
  36. 1,601 kmTaseyeva Rivertributary
  37. 1,640 kmTatarkatributary
  38. 1,779 kmYeniseiat 75 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

River in Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai, south-east Siberia, Russia

At the mouth it carries 4,518 m³/s on average: 1.8 Olympic pools every second. It drops from 449 m to 75 m, 0.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,039,000 km², about the size of MR. 5.3 million people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from June to August; lowest: from January to April. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 180% of a year's flow.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • IrkutskLargest city on its banks · 605,708 people
  • Irkutsk International Airport (IKT)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 8 km from the city
  • On the water50 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From June to AugustThe best months to visit

Angara, month by month

Highest water: from June to August

Lowest water: from January to April. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from June to August.

2,000
-23°16 mmJan
2,000
-20°12 mmFeb
2,000
-11°12 mmMar
2,000
-1°20 mmApr
6,500
7°33 mmMay
7,000
15°46 mmJun
7,200
18°65 mmJul
7,500
15°65 mmAug
4,800
8°42 mmSep
4,200
-1°28 mmOct
3,300
-12°26 mmNov
2,500
-20°22 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 2,000 m³/s in the lowest month to 7,500 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

Car hire in RussiaDiscover CarsSee 

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

The basin

Angara: the basin in numbers

1,034,536 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

DammedReservoirs can hold 180% of a year's flow: much of the river is a chain of lakes.
  • 5.3millionpeople live in the basin
  • 5/km²people per km²
  • 1,000maverage altitude of the basin
  • 388mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • -3.1°Caverage air temperature
  • 5%protected areas
  • 4.1%covered by lakes
  • 30%permafrost
  • 274km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 60% Forest
  • 4% Cropland
  • 18% Pasture

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

Angara: what you find on the way

  • 8DamsIrkutsk Dam, Bratsk Dam, Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station and 5 more
  • 2Weirs
  • 1Waterfalls
  • 4Boat ramps
  • 43Ferry piersferry to Bolshoye Koty/Irkutsk, Irkutsk-Bratsk, Usolye-Sibirskoye and 40 more
  • 3Marinas
  • 7River beachesYershi Beach, Beach on the Island of Youth and 5 more

From OpenStreetMap, within 3.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Angara 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.

  • 3waterfalls on the riverCascadyas
  • 3lakes on its wayLakeyas
  • 1mountain at the sourcePeakyas

Waterfalls (3)

On the river, by Cascadyas

  1. Porog Tolstyy Bykkm 948
  2. Porog Tushamskiy Bykkm 977
  3. Shivera Kashinakm 1,258

Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗

Lakes and reservoirs (3)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Lake Baikalkm 55 · 1,642 m deep31,968km²
  2. Bratsk Reservoirkm 660 · 150 m deep4,811km²
  3. Ust-Ilimsk Reservoirkm 945 · 91 m deep1,703km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Mountains at the source (1)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Chersky Stone1.7 km away728m

Open Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Angara: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Angara: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth139 km across

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.

Photos

Angara in pictures

Angara-Lake Baikal 1
Octagon · CC BY 3.0
Embankment of the Angara in winter. Irkutsk, Russia
Newspaper "Number One" (photographer Petr Sanzhiev) · Public domain
Abandoned Angara fleet, Port Baikal (31462551543)
Artem Svetlov from Moscow, Russia · CC BY 2.0
Am Ufer der Angara bei Talzy
FrankBothe · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

It flows into

YeniseiRussiaRussia3,487 km19,800 m³/s

Tributaries (19)

OkaRussiaRussia630 km270 m³/sIrkutRussiaRussia488 km140 m³/sjoins at km 64

Also: Upper Angara, Taseyeva River, Ilim, Iya, Kitoy River, Belaya, Chadobets, Mura River, River Kova, Irkineyeva, Kamenka, Karabula, Kata, Tatarka, Koda, Kuda, Ushakovka

In the same basin

Nizhnyaya TunguskaRussiaRussia2,989 km3,700 m³/sSelengaRussiaRussia1,024 km940 m³/sPodkamennaya TunguskaRussiaRussia1,865 km1,600 m³/sOrkhon RiverMongoliaMongolia1,124 km120 m³/sAbakanRussiaRussia514 km380 m³/sUdaRussiaRussia1,203 km300 m³/sTuul RiverMongoliaMongolia704 km37 m³/sBiryusaRussiaRussia830 km350 m³/sIder RiverMongoliaMongolia452 km57 m³/sEg RiverMongoliaMongolia475 km100 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

UdaRussiaRussia1,203 km300 m³/s150 km awayBiryusaRussiaRussia830 km350 m³/s150 km awayPodkamennaya TunguskaRussiaRussia1,865 km1,600 m³/s419 km awayAbakanRussiaRussia514 km380 m³/s493 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q162737) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesCascadyas, Lakeyas, 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

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit