River
Gongola River
531 km from source to mouth · Nigeria.
NigeriaFlows into Benue River6th longest in Nigeria
In numbers
Length
531km
Average flow
210m³/s
Basin
56,000km²
Drop
400m
from 543 m to 143 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
531 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmJos Plateauat 543 m
- 77 kmDindima13,356 people
- 265 kmNafada22,920 people
- 365 kmLake Dadin kowa151 km²
- 368 kmHinna7,826 people
- 520 kmNuman77,617 people
- 531 kmBenue Riverat 143 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Nigeria
At the mouth it carries 205 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 12 seconds. It drops from 543 m to 143 m, 0.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 56,000 km², about the size of HR. 5.7 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from January to April. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 57% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- NumanLargest city on its banks · 77,617 people
- Yola Airport (YOL)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 50 km from the cityCar hire at ABV airport (Abuja)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From November to FebruaryThe best months to visit
Gongola River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from November to February.
From about 31 m³/s in the lowest month to 750 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
Gongola River: the basin in numbers
52,868 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 5.7millionpeople live in the basin
- 108/km²people per km²
- 496maverage altitude of the basin
- 907mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 25.3°Caverage air temperature
- 9%protected areas
- 0.5%covered by lakes
- 3.7km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 29% Cropland
- 32% 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
Gongola River: what you find on the way
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Gongola 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
9mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Dadin kowakm 379151km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (9)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Talbunduli Hill15 km away
- Gimsa Hill8.7 km away
- Dos Hill9.4 km away
- Yebala Hills15 km away
- Shirum Hill9.1 km away
- Lar Hill7.2 km away
- Jir Hills9.3 km away
- Chigel Hill6.2 km away
1 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
Gongola River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Benue RiverNigeria1,370 km3,200 m³/sIn the same basin
Nigeria4,180 km8,600 m³/sBani River
Mali430 km510 m³/sSankarani RiverMali400 km260 m³/sKaduna RiverNigeria550 km640 m³/sMékrou River
Niger410 km29 m³/sFaro RiverNigeria305 km360 m³/sTinkisso River
Guinea268 km180 m³/sSokoto RiverNigeria600 km290 m³/sSota River
Benin250 km46 m³/sMilo RiverGuinea330 km190 m³/s
Chad
CameroonWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q4786963) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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?
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