River
Arda
290 km from source to mouth · Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece.
Turkey, Bulgaria and GreeceFlows into Maritsa
In numbers
Length
290km
Average flow
38m³/s
Basin
5,795km²
Drop
877m
from 912 m to 35 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
290 km of river and 13 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmRhodope Mountainsat 912 m
- 26 kmRudozem3,783 people
- 47 kmChernatributary
- 71 kmDyavolski most
- 112 kmKardzhali Reservoir12 km²
- 116 kmKardzhali44,071 people
- 134 kmVarbitsatributary
- 138 kmPerperektributary
- 153 kmStuden Kladenets reservoir22 km²
- 162 kmKrumovitsatributary
- 231 kmIvaylovgrad reservoir12 km²
- 232 kmIvailovgrad Hydroelectric Power Station
- 260 kmAterenska rivertributary
- 285 kmArda rail bridge
- 290 kmMaritsaat 35 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Bulgaria and Greece
At the mouth it carries 38 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 66 seconds. It drops from 912 m to 35 m, 3.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 5,795 km², about the size of BN. 242,000 people live in it. Highest water: from December to February; lowest: from July to September. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 102% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- KardzhaliLargest city on its banks · 44,071 people
- Plovdiv International Airport (PDV)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 64 km from the cityCar hire at PDV airport (Plovdiv)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe3 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Arda, month by month
Highest water: from December to February
Lowest water: from July to September. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 8.9 m³/s in the lowest month to 76 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
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
Arda: the basin in numbers
5,623 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 242,000people live in the basin
- 44/km²people per km²
- 607maverage altitude of the basin
- 630mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 10.6°Caverage air temperature
- 4%protected areas
- 0.8%covered by lakes
- 1.2km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 45% Forest
- 10% Cropland
- 25% Pasture
- 2% Towns and cities
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
Arda: what you find on the way
- 16Weirs
- 2Waterfalls
- 2Rapids
- 1Canoe put-ins
- 1Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Arda 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.
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
3mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Kardzhali Reservoirkm 8712km²
- Studen Kladenets reservoirkm 11822km²
- Ivaylovgrad reservoirkm 17812km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (3)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Kushlardag3.9 km away1,143m
- Potamaki11 km away859m
- Stamna0.8 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.
Photos
Arda in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
MaritsaTurkey490 km200 m³/sTributaries (8)
Also: Krumovitsa, Varbitsa, Malka Arda, Borovitsa, Perperek, Aterenska river, Elhovska, Cherna
In the same basin
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q500954) · 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 | 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.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit