Skip to content
riveryas
EN

River

Ceyhan River

474 km from source to mouth · Turkey.

TurkeyTurkeyFlows into Mediterranean Sea9th longest in Turkey

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouth
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

474km

Average flow

230m³/s

Basin

21,200km²

Drop

1,133m

from 1,133 m to 0 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

474 km of river and 10 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

1,133 m0 m
Sourceat 1,133 m0 km
Göksun Rivertributary30 km
Menzelet Reservoir26 km²123 km
Aksu Rivertributary143 km
Aslantaş Reservoir37 km²236 km
Ceyhan96,303 people337 km
Abdioğlu Cumhuriyet1,669 people382 km
Mediterranean Seaat 0 m474 km
0100200300400474 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 1,133 m
  2. 3 kmElbistan80,456 people
  3. 30 kmGöksun Rivertributary
  4. 123 kmMenzelet Reservoir26 km²
  5. 135 kmCeyhan Bridge
  6. 143 kmAksu Rivertributary
  7. 236 kmAslantaş Reservoir37 km²
  8. 337 kmCeyhan96,303 people
  9. 365 kmMisis Bridge
  10. 382 kmAbdioğlu Cumhuriyet1,669 people
  11. 466 kmLake Akyayan10 km²
  12. 474 kmMediterranean Seaat 0 m

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

River in Adana, south-central Turkey

At the mouth it carries 230 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 11 seconds. It drops from 1,133 m to 0 m, 2.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 21,200 km², about the size of SV. 2.0 million people live in it. Highest water: from January to February; lowest: from July to October. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 58% of a year's flow.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

Ceyhan River, month by month

Highest water: from January to February

Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from May to July and from September to October.

530
5°110 mmJan
550
7°91 mmFeb
480
10°86 mmMar
370
15°70 mmApr
270
19°52 mmMay
170
23°21 mmJun
100
26°8 mmJul
70
26°8 mmAug
70
23°17 mmSep
120
18°54 mmOct
220
13°70 mmNov
400
8°113 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 70 m³/s in the lowest month to 550 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

Ceyhan River: the basin in numbers

21,248 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

DammedReservoirs can hold 58% of a year's flow: much of the river is a chain of lakes.
  • 2.0millionpeople live in the basin
  • 95/km²people per km²
  • 1,006maverage altitude of the basin
  • 643mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 12.7°Caverage air temperature
  • 0.6%covered by lakes
  • 4.7km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 8% Forest
  • 32% Cropland
  • 14% Pasture
  • 3% 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

Ceyhan River: what you find on the way

  • 12DamsDagdelen Regülatörü, Kandil Barajı, Sarıgüzel Barajı and 9 more
  • 17Weirs

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Ceyhan 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.

  • 3lakes on its wayLakeyas
  • 5mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Lakes and reservoirs (3)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Menzelet Reservoirkm 103 · 50 m deep26km²
  2. Aslantaş Reservoirkm 19837km²
  3. Lake Akyayankm 391 · 3 m deep10km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Mountains at the source (5)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Şar Dağı6.3 km away
  2. Akziyaret Hill13 km away
  3. Salavan Dağı14 km away
  4. Mount Medetsiz8.2 km away
  5. Mount Doğanhöyük14 km away

Open Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Ceyhan River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Ceyhan River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth20 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

Ceyhan River in pictures

Ceyhan River in Gökçedam, Osmaniye 02
Zeynel Cebeci · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ceyhan River in Gökçedam, Osmaniye 01
Zeynel Cebeci · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ceyhan River, Turkey
Nedim Ardoğa · CC BY-SA 3.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (2)

Also: Aksu River, Göksun River

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q1057961) · 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 atlasesLakeyas, 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