River
Jiu River
331 km from source to mouth · Romania.
RomaniaFlows into Danube6th longest in Romania
In numbers
Length
331km
Average flow
94m³/s
Basin
10,070km²
Drop
764m
from 792 m to 28 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
331 km of river and 26 stops on the way: 21 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 792 m
- 18 kmUricani9,924 people
- 28 kmLupeni30,488 people
- 34 kmVulcan19,772 people
- 38 kmAninoasa4,998 people
- 74 kmBumbeşti-Jiu10,445 people
- 94 kmTârgu Jiu73,545 people
- 95 kmJiu Bridge
- 102 kmAmaradiatributary
- 106 kmDrăguţeşti5,126 people
- 119 kmRovinari12,259 people
- 120 kmTismana Rivertributary
- 127 kmFărcăşeşti3,857 people
- 141 kmUrdari3,162 people
- 146 kmPlopşoru6,576 people
- 159 kmTurceni8,458 people
- 174 kmGilort Rivertributary
- 181 kmMotru Rivertributary
- 190 kmBraloştiţa3,840 people
- 192 kmFiliaşi18,995 people
- 205 kmBrădeşti4,625 people
- 223 kmIşalniţa3,955 people
- 231 kmBreasta3,867 people
- 237 kmBucovăţ4,175 people
- 244 kmPodari6,302 people
- 252 kmMalu Mare4,995 people
- 296 kmValea Stanciului4,806 people
- 331 kmDanubeat 28 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Tributary of the Danube River in southern Romania
At the mouth it carries 94 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 27 seconds. It drops from 792 m to 28 m, 2.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 10,070 km², about the size of LB. 919,000 people live in it. Highest water: February, April and June. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Târgu JiuLargest city on its banks · 73,545 people
- Craiova International Airport (CRA)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 94 km from the cityCar hire at CRA airport (Craiova)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Jiu River, month by month
Highest water: February, April and June
Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 24 m³/s in the lowest month to 130 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
Jiu River: the basin in numbers
10,157 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 919,000people live in the basin
- 91/km²people per km²
- 442maverage altitude of the basin
- 668mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 9.5°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
- 0.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 41% Forest
- 34% Cropland
- 19% Pasture
- 2% 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
Jiu River: what you find on the way
- 7WaterfallsCascada Valea Mării, Cascada Lazărului, Cascada Firizoni and 4 more
- 1River beachesPlaja Voinigești
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Jiu 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.
3mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (3)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Peleaga11 km away · prominence 1,759 m2,509m
- Păpușa Peak10 km away2,504m
- Retezat14 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
Jiu River in pictures

Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
DanubeTributaries (24)
Also: Amaradia, Gilort River, Motru River, Amaradia, Brădești River, Tismana River, Șușița River, Șușița River, Chițiu River, Argetoaia River, Bratcu River, Cioiana River, Dâmbova River, Gioroc River, Rasnic River, Polatiștea River, Jilț River, Jiul de Est River, Jiul de Vest River, Porcu River, Sadu River, Sâmbotin River, Tetila River, Izvorul River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q530577) · 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 | 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.