River
Guadalhorce
166 km from source to mouth · Spain.
SpainFlows into Mediterranean Sea
In numbers
Length
166km
Average flow
8.0m³/s
Basin
3,147km²
Drop
628m
from 628 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
166 km of river and 13 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmPuerto de los Alazoresat 628 m
- 0 kmVillanueva del Rosario3,356 people
- 30 kmGuadalhorce Viaduct
- 81 kmPantano del Chorro4.6 km²
- 83 kmGaitanejo Reservoir2.9 km²
- 87 kmpipeline bridge over the Guadalhorce in El Chorro
- 87 kmEl Chorro245 people
- 92 kmTurón Rivertributary
- 109 kmAlora12,951 people
- 119 kmPizarra7,345 people
- 130 kmGrande Rivertributary
- 137 kmCártama21,313 people
- 140 kmEstación de Cártama5,000 people
- 164 kmCampanillas Rivertributary
- 166 kmMediterranean Seaat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Spain, European Union
At the mouth it carries 8.0 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 312 seconds. It drops from 628 m to 0 m, 3.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 3,147 km², about the size of LU. 429,000 people live in it. Highest water: from December to January; lowest: from June to September. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 57% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- CártamaLargest city on its banks · 21,313 people
- Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 13 km from the cityCar hire at AGP airport (Málaga)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Guadalhorce, month by month
Highest water: from December to January
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 2.2 m³/s in the lowest month to 61 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
Guadalhorce: the basin in numbers
3,319 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 429,000people live in the basin
- 129/km²people per km²
- 510maverage altitude of the basin
- 648mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 16.0°Caverage air temperature
- 5%protected areas
- 0.7%covered by lakes
- 0.4km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 16% Forest
- 62% Cropland
- 11% Pasture
- 6% 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
Guadalhorce: what you find on the way
- 6Weirs
- 1MarinasEmbarcadero
- 4River beachesPlaya Sacaba Beach, Playa Campo de Golf, Playa de Guadalmar and 1 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Guadalhorce 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.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
26beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
10mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Pantano del Chorrokm 594.6km²
- Gaitanejo Reservoirkm 602.9km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Beaches (26)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Playa Fuengirola21 km away22.8°C
- Playa Rafa3.9 km away23.4°C
- Playa Nudista Benalnatura13 km away23.4°C
- Castle Beach22 km away22.8°C
- Playa Saltillo9.2 km away23.4°C
- Playa de la Malagueta6.9 km away23.4°C
- Playa Del Castillo Sohail22 km away22.8°C
- Playa La Perla15 km away23.4°C
18 more on CoastyaOpen Coastya ↗
Mountains at the source (10)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Sierra de Alhama7.5 km away1,500m
- Pico del Chamizo10 km away1,641m
- Cerro del Tajo Tello5.9 km away1,332m
- Tajo de Gómer10 km away1,129m
- Sierra del Jobo10 km away
- Sierra de Gibalto4.3 km away
- Cerro del Realengo15 km away
- Cruz de Camarolos13 km away
2 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
Guadalhorce in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (5)
Also: Turón River, Campanillas River, Grande River, Guadalteba River, Villa River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Spain657 km160 m³/s170 km awayGenilSpain358 km40 m³/s138 km awayGuadaleteSpain159 km20 m³/s159 km awayGuadiana
Portugal778 km70 m³/s268 km awayMoulouya River
Morocco520 km50 m³/s256 km awayLoukkos RiverMorocco176 km50 m³/s223 km awayTinto RiverSpain100 km14 m³/s228 km awaySebou RiverMorocco458 km140 m³/s333 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q17956) · 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, Coastya, 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