River
Kafue River
1,577 km from source to mouth · Zambia.
ZambiaFlows into Zambezi River1st longest in Zambia
In numbers
Length
1,577km
Average flow
310m³/s
Basin
154,829km²
Drop
937m
from 1,307 m to 370 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,577 km of river and 9 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,307 m
- 759 kmLungatributary
- 896 kmKafue Hook Bridge
- 1,031 kmItezhi-Tezhi22,449 people
- 1,092 kmNamwala15,614 people
- 1,323 kmHambalu Inlet0.4 km²
- 1,370 kmChiyanshi Lagoon9.8 km²
- 1,391 kmKafue104,174 people
- 1,430 kmKafue Gorge13 km²
- 1,449 kmAvumba-Menda Falls
- 1,577 kmZambezi Riverat 370 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Zambia
At the mouth it carries 314 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 8.0 seconds. It drops from 1,307 m to 370 m, 0.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 154,829 km², about the size of SR. 5.0 million people live in it. Highest water: from February to March; lowest: from July to October. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (42% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- KafueLargest city on its banks · 104,174 people
- Kenneth Kaunda International Airport (LUN)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 57 km from the cityCar hire at LUN airport (Lusaka)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water13 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe3 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Kafue River, month by month
Highest water: from February to March
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 200 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,200 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
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The basin
Kafue River: the basin in numbers
156,563 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 5.0millionpeople live in the basin
- 32/km²people per km²
- 1,169maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,006mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 20.5°Caverage air temperature
- 46%protected areas
- 0.4%covered by lakes
- 6.5km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 64% Forest
- 6% Cropland
- 31% 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
Kafue River: what you find on the way
- 8Weirs
- 3RapidsMwengwa Rapids
- 3Boat ramps
- 10Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Kafue 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.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Avumba-Menda Fallskm 1,303
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Hambalu Inletkm 1,1900.4km²
- Chiyanshi Lagoonkm 1,2329.8km²
- Kafue Gorgekm 1,28613km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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
Kafue River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Zambezi River
Mozambique2,574 km7,000 m³/sTributaries (4)
Also: Lunga, Luswishi, Lufupa, Kafulafuta
Namibia
MalawiWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q846063) · 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 | Cascadyas, Lakeyas — 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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