River
Draa River
1,100 km from source to mouth · Morocco.
MoroccoFlows into Atlantic Ocean1st longest in Morocco
In numbers
Length
1,100km
Average flow
240m³/s
Basin
15,100km²
Drop
1,058m
from 1,057 m to -1 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,100 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmHigh Atlasat 1,057 m
- 2 kmEl Mansour Ad Dahbi Reservoir34 km²
- 59 kmAgdz11,663 people
- 171 kmZagora43,752 people
- 278 kmMhamid10,000 people
- 1,100 kmAtlantic Oceanat -1 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Morocco
At the mouth it carries 241 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 10 seconds. It drops from 1,057 m to -1 m, 1.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 15,100 km², about the size of TL. 907,000 people live in it. Highest water: from December to January; lowest: from June to September. Its dams hold back little of its water (7.8% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- ZagoraLargest city on its banks · 43,752 people
- Zagora Airport (OZG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 8 km from the cityCar hire at RAK airport (Marrakesh)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From February to May and OctoberThe best months to visit
Draa River, month by month
Highest water: from December to January
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from February to May and October.
From about 31 m³/s in the lowest month to 530 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
Draa River: the basin in numbers
94,290 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 907,000people live in the basin
- 10/km²people per km²
- 854maverage altitude of the basin
- 146mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 19.9°Caverage air temperature
- 37%protected areas
- 0.6km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 1% Cropland
- 20% 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
Draa River: what you find on the way
- 10Weirs
- 1Locks
- 1WaterfallsTizgui’s waterfalls
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Draa 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
32mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- El Mansour Ad Dahbi Reservoirkm 234km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (32)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Jebel Tousaoun7.6 km away
- Jebel Tinouraï12 km away
- Tirhbelit9.8 km away
- Jebel Taisda13 km away
- Jebel Marot12 km away
- Jebel Ouaouioust7.3 km away
- Jebel Bou Larjem2.8 km away
- Tarhia du Drâa14 km away
24 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
Draa River in pictures
Western SaharaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q486636) · 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 canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit