River
Atbarah River
1,120 km from source to mouth · Sudan and Ethiopia.
Sudan and EthiopiaFlows into Nile3rd longest in Sudan
In numbers
Length
1,120km
Average flow
370m³/s
Basin
4km²
Drop
1,450m
from 1,798 m to 348 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
1,120 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,798 m
- 380 kmAngereb Rivertributary
- 465 kmTekezé Rivertributary
- 471 kmAl-Fashaqah21,106 people
- 550 kmKhashm al Qirbah42,900 people
- 1,062 kmAtbara112,021 people
- 1,120 kmNileat 348 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Africa
At the mouth it carries 374 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 6.7 seconds. It drops from 1,798 m to 348 m, 1.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 4 km². 147 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from January to April. Its dams hold back little of its water (9.8% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- AtbaraLargest city on its banks · 112,021 people
- From December to FebruaryThe best months to visit
Atbarah River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from December to February.
From about 370 m³/s in the lowest month to 9,000 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
Atbarah River: the basin in numbers
2,250,700 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 147millionpeople live in the basin
- 66/km²people per km²
- 859maverage altitude of the basin
- 858mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 25.0°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
- 3.8%covered by lakes
- 9.5km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 12% Forest
- 14% Cropland
- 43% 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
Atbarah River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
From OpenStreetMap, within 3.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
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
Atbarah River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Nile
Egypt6,650 km2,800 m³/sIn the same basin
Sudan2,620 km880 m³/sBlue NileSudan1,783 km1,500 m³/sKagera River
Uganda400 km350 m³/sSobat River
South Sudan306 km410 m³/sBahr el Ghazal RiverSouth Sudan716 km2.0 m³/sMara River
Tanzania395 km18 m³/sValley of the QueensEgypt4,302 km2,600 m³/sBaro RiverEthiopia306 km240 m³/sSemliki RiverUganda230 km240 m³/sRurubu RiverTanzania300 km100 m³/s
EritreaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q753897) · 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 |
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