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River

Drava

720 km from source to mouth · 5 countries.

CroatiaSloveniaHungaryItalyAustriaCroatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Italy and AustriaFlows into Danube1st longest in Croatia

Follow the riverMonth by month

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

In numbers

Length

720km

Average flow

620m³/s

Basin

40,400km²

Drop

1,111m

from 1,188 m to 77 m

Countries

5

The journey

From source to mouth

720 km of river and 52 stops on the way: 12 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

1,188 m77 m
Innichenat 1,188 m0 km
Frauenbach Wasserfall49 km
Villach65,127 people146 km
Feistritzer Stausee3.3 km²177 km
Feistritztributary238 km
Maribor114,301 people320 km
Ptuj17,880 people349 km
Lake Dubrava16 km²427 km
Šoderica1.2 km²450 km
Čađavicatributary546 km
Karašicatributary634 km
Danubeat 77 m720 km
0200400600720 km
  1. 0 kmInnichenat 1,188 m
  2. 41 kmLienz11,572 people
  3. 45 kmDebantbachtributary
  4. 46 kmIseltributary
  5. 49 kmFrauenbach Wasserfall
  6. 100 kmMölltributary
  7. 110 kmSpittal an der Drau12,880 people
  8. 126 kmLiesertributary
  9. 146 kmVillach65,127 people
  10. 146 kmVillach-Innere Stadt8,189 people
  11. 149 kmGailtributary
  12. 177 kmFeistritzer Stausee3.3 km²
  13. 184 kmEisenbahnbrücke Ferlacher Stausee
  14. 187 kmFerlacher Stausee2.8 km²
  15. 202 kmStausee Annabrücke2.6 km²
  16. 206 kmVellachtributary
  17. 211 kmDrava bridge Stein
  18. 214 kmGurktributary
  19. 214 kmKlopeiner See1.0 km²
  20. 228 kmVölkermarkter Stausee8.3 km²
  21. 238 kmJauntalbrücke
  22. 238 kmFeistritztributary
  23. 254 kmLavanttributary
  24. 260 kmMežatributary
  25. 271 kmLake Dravograd1.0 km²
  26. 308 kmLobnica (Drava)
  27. 320 kmMaribor114,301 people
  28. 321 kmOld Bridge
  29. 321 kmTown centre, Maribor
  30. 322 kmDouble-Storey Bridge
  31. 349 kmPtuj17,880 people
  32. 350 kmPuh Bridge
  33. 354 kmLake Ptuj4.3 km²
  34. 356 kmDravinjatributary
  35. 366 kmPesnicatributary
  36. 380 kmLake Ormož2.3 km²
  37. 398 kmVaraždin36,187 people
  38. 406 kmLake Varaždin9.8 km²
  39. 427 kmLake Dubrava16 km²
  40. 431 kmBednjatributary
  41. 450 kmŠoderica1.2 km²
  42. 452 kmMurtributary
  43. 514 kmRinya-pataktributary
  44. 518 kmBarcs9,454 people
  45. 546 kmČađavicatributary
  46. 634 kmKarašicatributary
  47. 645 kmGornji grad (Osijek)16,520 people
  48. 645 kmPedestrian bridge
  49. 646 kmSuleiman Bridge
  50. 646 kmTvrđa10,277 people
  51. 646 kmOsijek75,535 people
  52. 646 kmFranjo Tuđman Bridge
  53. 648 kmDonji grad11,020 people
  54. 720 kmDanubeat 77 m

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

River in Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary

At the mouth it carries 620 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 4.0 seconds. It drops from 1,188 m to 77 m, 1.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 40,400 km², about the size of CH. 3.1 million people live in it. Highest water: from July to August and from November to December. Its dams hold back little of its water (3.8% of a year's flow).

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • MariborLargest city on its banks · 114,301 people
  • Maribor Edvard Rusjan Airport (MBX)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 9 km from the cityCar hire at GRZ airport (Feldkirchen bei Graz)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • On the water70 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • Kayak and canoe21 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
  • From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit

Drava, month by month

Highest water: from July to August and from November to December

Best months to visit: from May to September.

230
-2°48 mmJan
280
0°49 mmFeb
420
5°52 mmMar
760
9°73 mmApr
680
14°89 mmMay
780
17°110 mmJun
820
19°103 mmJul
820
19°98 mmAug
680
15°83 mmSep
690
10°77 mmOct
940
4°87 mmNov
960
0°65 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 230 m³/s in the lowest month to 960 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

Car hire at GRZ airport (Feldkirchen bei Graz)Discover CarsSee 

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

Drava: the basin in numbers

40,250 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Lightly regulatedReservoirs can hold 3.8% of a year's flow.
  • 3.1millionpeople live in the basin
  • 77/km²people per km²
  • 758maverage altitude of the basin
  • 1,017mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 7.0°Caverage air temperature
  • 21%protected areas
  • 0.4%covered by lakes
  • 1%permafrost
  • 0.6km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 67% Forest
  • 21% Cropland
  • 20% 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

Drava: what you find on the way

  • 50DamsHE Dravograd, HE Vuzenica, Jez HE Vuhred and 47 more
  • 187WeirsWehranlage St. Martin, Globokarjeva žaga and 185 more
  • 4Locks
  • 24WaterfallsFrauenbach Wasserfall, Silberfall Wasserfall, Lieser - Drau Wasserfall and 21 more
  • 16RapidsDolomitenwelle, Dolomitenmannstufe and 14 more
  • 5Canoe put-ins
  • 34Boat rampsSlipanlage Hafen Dragositschach, Slipanlage Sankt Oswald, Marina Prelog and 31 more
  • 12Ferry piersVelden, Santa Lucia Velden, Osijek Zoo and 9 more
  • 19MarinasSchmalzl, Dragositschach, Sankt Oswald and 16 more
  • 5Boat rentalsAhoi Faakersee, Nessmann, Kenukölcsönző and 2 more
  • 11River beachesFreier Seezugang Badeplatz „Bank im See“, Strandbad Egg, Drava bathing spot and 8 more

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Drava 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.

  • 2waterfalls on the riverCascadyas
  • 11lakes on its wayLakeyas
  • 53mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Waterfalls (2)

On the river, by Cascadyas

  1. Frauenbach Wasserfallkm 49
  2. Lobnica (Drava)km 308

Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗

Lakes and reservoirs (11)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Feistritzer Stauseekm 1773.3km²
  2. Klopeiner Seekm 214 · 48 m deep1.0km²
  3. Völkermarkter Stauseekm 2288.3km²
  4. Lake Ptujkm 3544.3km²
  5. Lake Ormožkm 3802.3km²
  6. Lake Varaždinkm 4069.8km²
  7. Lake Dubravakm 42716km²
  8. Šodericakm 450 · 20 m deep1.2km²

3 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Mountains at the source (53)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Dolomites14 km away3,343m
  2. Hohe Gaisl14 km away · prominence 1,133 m3,146m
  3. Dreischusterspitze7.7 km away · prominence 1,393 m3,145m
  4. Zwölferkofel14 km away · prominence 713 m3,094m
  5. Elferkofel14 km away · prominence 661 m3,092m
  6. Birkenkofel4.5 km away · prominence 391 m2,922m
  7. Sextener Rotwand13 km away · prominence 248 m2,965m
  8. Monte Popera15 km away · prominence 166 m3,046m

45 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Drava: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Drava: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth27 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

Drava in pictures

Weissenstein Puch Drau Fluss-Landschaft 08112015 8744
Johann Jaritz · CC BY-SA 4.0
Villach Innenstadt Bahnhofstraße Draubrücke St. Nikolai 15072020 9375
Johann Jaritz · CC BY-SA 4.0
River Drava (29799981721)
Nick Savchenko from Kiev, Ukraine · CC BY-SA 2.0
Bij Bad Jungbrunn, de Drau IMG 1574 2019-08-08 11.08
Michielverbeek · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

It flows into

DanubeRomaniaRomania2,850 km5,400 m³/s

Tributaries (51)

MurCroatiaCroatia434 km170 m³/sjoins at km 452GailAustriaAustria122 km45 m³/sjoins at km 150

Also: Gurk, Dravinja, Meža, Pesnica, Lavant, Bednja, Möll, Karašica, Isel, Rinya-patak, Gailbach, Lieser, Sextner Bach, Debantbach, Vellach, Loiblbach, Thaler Bach, Villgratenbach, Kristeinbach, Čađavica, Seebach, Galitzenbach, Feistritz, Fekete-víz

In the same basin

TiszaSerbiaSerbia966 km800 m³/sSavaSerbiaSerbia945 km1,700 m³/sInnGermanyGermany517 km740 m³/sPrutMoldovaMoldova953 km120 m³/sIsarGermanyGermany292 km170 m³/sMoravaAustriaAustria388 km110 m³/sDrinaSerbiaSerbia346 km120 m³/sSiret RiverRomaniaRomania740 km230 m³/sOlt RiverRomaniaRomania615 km170 m³/sMureș RiverHungaryHungary803 km160 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

BosnaBosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina282 km140 m³/s64 km awayDrinaSerbiaSerbia346 km120 m³/s77 km awayTiszaSerbiaSerbia966 km800 m³/s115 km awaySavaSerbiaSerbia945 km1,700 m³/s144 km awayMureș RiverHungaryHungary803 km160 m³/s120 km awayBosutSerbiaSerbia186 km17 m³/s76 km awayVrbasBosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina240 km33 m³/s120 km awayBega RiverRomaniaRomania256 km13 m³/s115 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q171009) · 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 atlasesCascadyas, 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.

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