Stream
Benue River
1,370 km from source to mouth · Nigeria and Cameroon.
Nigeria and CameroonFlows into Niger River2nd longest in Nigeria
In numbers
Length
1,370km
Average flow
3,200m³/s
Basin
441,000km²
Drop
586m
from 621 m to 35 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
1,370 km of river and 20 stops on the way: 9 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmAdamawa Plateauat 621 m
- 248 kmLagdo33,564 people
- 248 kmLagdo Reservoir623 km²
- 287 kmMayo Kébitributary
- 308 kmGaroua34,957 people
- 341 kmGorom1.6 km²
- 368 kmLac Wélé3.9 km²
- 455 kmJimeta248,148 people
- 459 kmLake Geriyo1.8 km²
- 473 kmLake Gokra1.2 km²
- 523 kmGongola Rivertributary
- 523 kmNuman77,617 people
- 631 kmLau12,657 people
- 699 kmLake Ji0.3 km²
- 795 kmTaraba Rivertributary
- 855 kmDonga Rivertributary
- 889 kmIbi22,757 people
- 1,010 kmKatsina Ala Rivertributary
- 1,054 kmMakurdi390,000 people
- 1,181 kmBugana9,737 people
- 1,294 kmLokoja60,579 people
- 1,370 kmNiger Riverat 35 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Tributary of the Niger River in Cameroon and Nigeria
At the mouth it carries 3,170 m³/s on average: 1.3 Olympic pools every second. It drops from 621 m to 35 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 441,000 km², about the size of IQ. 25.7 million people live in it. Highest water: September; lowest: from January to April. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (13% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- MakurdiLargest city on its banks · 390,000 people
- Makurdi Airport (MDI)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 11 km from the cityCar hire at ABV airport (Abuja)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water9 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From November to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Benue River, month by month
Highest water: September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from November to January.
From about 540 m³/s in the lowest month to 7,900 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
Benue River: the basin in numbers
338,968 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 25.7millionpeople live in the basin
- 76/km²people per km²
- 441maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,197mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 26.0°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 12km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 22% Forest
- 32% Cropland
- 24% 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
Benue River: what you find on the way
- 8Ferry piers
- 1Marinas
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Benue 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.
6lakes on its wayLakeyas
2mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (6)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lagdo Reservoirkm 230623km²
- Goromkm 3161.6km²
- Lac Wélékm 3413.9km²
- Lake Geriyokm 4251.8km²
- Lake Gokrakm 4381.2km²
- Lake Jikm 6470.3km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (2)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Hoséré Bembé8.8 km away
- Hoséré Badi15 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
Benue River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Niger RiverNigeria4,180 km8,600 m³/sTributaries (8)
Also: Mayo Kébi, Donga River, Taraba River, Katsina Ala River, Wase River, Ankwe river, Kilange (Fluss)
In the same basin
Mali430 km510 m³/sSankarani RiverMali400 km260 m³/sKaduna RiverNigeria550 km640 m³/sMékrou River
Niger410 km29 m³/sFaro RiverNigeria305 km360 m³/sTinkisso River
Guinea268 km180 m³/sSokoto RiverNigeria600 km290 m³/sSota River
Benin250 km46 m³/sMilo RiverGuinea330 km190 m³/sSirba RiverNiger350 km780 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q204806) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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
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