River
Chong-Kemin River
116 km from source to mouth · Kyrgyzstan.
KyrgyzstanFlows into Chu River3rd longest in Kyrgyzstan
In numbers
Length
116km
Average flow
22m³/s
Basin
1,890km²
Drop
1,723m
from 2,979 m to 1,256 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
116 km of river and 0 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 2,979 m
- 116 kmChu Riverat 1,256 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Kyrgyzstan
At the mouth it carries 22 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 115 seconds. It drops from 2,979 m to 1,256 m, 15 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,890 km², about the size of GP. 139,000 people live in it. Highest water: from May to June; lowest: from December to March. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (40% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- KeminLargest city on its banks · 10,354 people
- Issyk-Kul International Airport (IKU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 86 km from the cityCar hire at ALA airport (Almaty)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to AugustThe best months to visit
Chong-Kemin River, month by month
Highest water: from May to June
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Best months to visit: from June to August.
From about 0.0 m³/s in the lowest month to 100 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
Chong-Kemin River: the basin in numbers
8,996 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 139,000people live in the basin
- 16/km²people per km²
- 2,833maverage altitude of the basin
- 321mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -1.5°Caverage air temperature
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 1%glaciers
- 25%permafrost
- 0.5km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 3% Forest
- 9% Cropland
- 43% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
- 1% Ice
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
Chong-Kemin River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
- 1Canoe put-ins
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Chong-Kemin 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.
13mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (13)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Molodaya gvardiya peak11 km away4,402m
- Oleg Koshevoy peak9.0 km away4,263m
- Sovetov peak14 km away
- Lokomotiv peak15 km away
- Pogrebetsky peak14 km away
- Gora Ozërnaya14 km away
- Mount Eshenbulak14 km away
- Gora Ajtor14 km away
5 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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
Chong-Kemin River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Chu River
Kazakhstan1,318 km130 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
Kyrgyzstan180 km33 m³/s152 km awayIli RiverKazakhstan1,439 km480 m³/s340 km awayCharyn RiverKazakhstan427 km35 m³/s316 km awayChilik RiverKazakhstan245 km32 m³/s316 km awayNaryn River
Uzbekistan807 km430 m³/s394 km awayKara DaryaUzbekistan180 km140 m³/s394 km awayKashgar River
China765 km72 m³/s378 km awayKaratal RiverKazakhstan390 km67 m³/s433 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q4517158) · 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 | 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