River
Czarna Hańcza
145 km from source to mouth · Lithuania, Belarus and Poland.
Lithuania, Belarus and PolandFlows into Neman9th longest in Lithuania
In numbers
Length
145km
Average flow
220m³/s
Basin
1,916km²
Drop
85m
from 169 m to 84 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
145 km of river and 13 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 169 m
- 0 kmOkmin1.0 km²
- 0 kmOżewo0.5 km²
- 13 kmSuwałki69,222 people
- 23 kmJezioro Krzywe Wigierskie1.3 km²
- 31 kmOkrągłe0.6 km²
- 38 kmWigry Lake18 km²
- 42 kmDowcień0.5 km²
- 42 kmJezioro Żubrowo0.7 km²
- 50 kmJezioro Gremzdy1.6 km²
- 83 kmJezioro Brożane0.4 km²
- 84 kmMikaszewo1.2 km²
- 129 kmMarycha Rivertributary
- 145 kmIgorka Rivertributary
- 145 kmNemanat 84 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River
At the mouth it carries 219 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 11 seconds. It drops from 169 m to 84 m, 0.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,916 km², about the size of MU. 1.6 million people live in it. Highest water: from April to June; lowest: from January to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- SuwałkiLargest city on its banks · 69,222 people
- Kaunas International Airport (KUN)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 120 km from the cityCar hire at KUN airport (Kaunas)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water28 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe4 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Czarna Hańcza, month by month
Highest water: from April to June
Lowest water: from January to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from January to February. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 110 m³/s in the lowest month to 660 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
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The basin
Czarna Hańcza: the basin in numbers
35,848 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.6millionpeople live in the basin
- 45/km²people per km²
- 169maverage altitude of the basin
- 633mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 6.4°Caverage air temperature
- 13%protected areas
- 0.4%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 31% Forest
- 35% Cropland
- 16% Pasture
- 1% 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
Czarna Hańcza: what you find on the way
- 18Weirs
- 26LocksŚluza Mikaszówka, Śluza Sosnówek, Śluza Tartak and 23 more
- 4Canoe put-ins
- 5Boat ramps
- 8Ferry piers
- 7MarinasMarina Wigry, Przystań and 5 more
- 2River beachesplaża miejska, Krzywe
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Czarna Hańcza 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.
10lakes on its wayLakeyas
4mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (10)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Okminkm 01.0km²
- Ożewokm 00.5km²
- Jezioro Krzywe Wigierskiekm 171.3km²
- Wigry Lakekm 28 · 73 m deep18km²
- Dowcieńkm 310.5km²
- Jezioro Żubrowokm 310.7km²
- Jezioro Gremzdykm 371.6km²
- Mikaszewokm 621.2km²
2 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (4)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Krzemieniucha8.5 km away284m
- Góra Zamkowa5.8 km away
- Wilcza Góra15 km away
- Góra Leszczynowa1.4 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
Czarna Hańcza in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
NemanLithuania937 km680 m³/sTributaries (3)
Also: Marycha River, Igorka River, Wołkuszanka
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Lithuania206 km33 m³/s31 km awayNerisLithuania510 km180 m³/s106 km awayŠčaraBelarus325 km31 m³/s79 km awayNevėžisLithuania210 km33 m³/s109 km awayBiebrzaPoland155 km76 m³/s129 km awayŠventojiLithuania246 km55 m³/s130 km awayVilniaLithuania80 km5.6 m³/s125 km awayDubysaLithuania146 km20 m³/s128 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1095661) · 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.
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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 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit