River
Kara Darya
180 km from source to mouth · Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Uzbekistan and KyrgyzstanFlows into Syr Darya7th longest in Uzbekistan
In numbers
Length
180km
Average flow
140m³/s
Basin
30,100km²
Drop
600m
from 1,003 m to 403 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
180 km of river and 14 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,003 m
- 16 kmKara-Kulja Rivertributary
- 16 kmTar Rivertributary
- 18 kmUzgen49,410 people
- 33 kmJazy Rivertributary
- 40 kmKurshab Rivertributary
- 42 kmKempir-Abad reservoir42 km²
- 42 kmAndijan Dam
- 49 kmSultonobod20,000 people
- 51 kmXonobod44,000 people
- 67 kmKegart Rivertributary
- 75 kmOyim32,750 people
- 101 kmPaxtaobod34,400 people
- 118 kmKara-Üŋkürtributary
- 157 kmChinobod24,000 people
- 180 kmSyr Daryaat 403 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan
At the mouth it carries 136 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 18 seconds. It drops from 1,003 m to 403 m, 3.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 30,100 km², about the size of LS. 3.8 million people live in it. Highest water: from March to April; lowest: from July to October. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 72% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- UzgenLargest city on its banks · 49,410 people
- Osh International Airport (OSS)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 46 km from the cityCar hire in TashkentDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From April to June and from August to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Kara Darya, month by month
Highest water: from March to April
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from April to June and from August to September.
From about 7.6 m³/s in the lowest month to 390 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
Kara Darya: the basin in numbers
28,599 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 3.8millionpeople live in the basin
- 132/km²people per km²
- 2,062maverage altitude of the basin
- 431mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 5.5°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 9%permafrost
- 2.1km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 6% Forest
- 13% Cropland
- 50% Pasture
- 8% 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
Kara Darya: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
- 2Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Kara Darya 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
5mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Kempir-Abad reservoirkm 4342km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (5)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Gora Torgay-Tyube11 km away
- Gora Korul-Tyube10 km away
- Gory Kyrk-Kungey7.4 km away
- Gora Tiootju5.8 km away
- Gory Germende13 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
Kara Darya in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Syr Darya
Kazakhstan2,212 km700 m³/sTributaries (8)
Also: Kurshab River, Kegart River, Tar River, Ak-Buura River, Jazy River, Kara-Üŋkür, Kara-Kulja River, Aravan River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Uzbekistan807 km430 m³/s0 km awayChatkal RiverUzbekistan217 km130 m³/s160 km awayChirchiqUzbekistan154 km220 m³/s257 km awayAngren RiverUzbekistan236 km23 m³/s246 km awayBartang River
Tajikistan528 km130 m³/s330 km awayTalas RiverKazakhstan661 km170 m³/s376 km awayAt-Bashi RiverKyrgyzstan180 km33 m³/s324 km awayArys RiverKazakhstan378 km47 m³/s360 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q155298) · 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, 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
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