River
Karakoro River
697 km from source to mouth · Mauritania and Mali.
Mauritania and MaliFlows into Senegal River1st longest in Mauritania
In numbers
Length
697km
Basin
41,300km²
Drop
271m
from 295 m to 24 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
697 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 295 m
- 454 kmKankossa8,122 people
- 520 kmOuld Yenjé5,057 people
- 555 kmBouly14,906 people
- 697 kmSenegal Riverat 24 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Mauritanie and Mali
It drops from 295 m to 24 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 41,300 km², about the size of CH. 356,000 people live in it. Highest water: September; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- BoulyLargest city on its banks · 14,906 people
- Kayes Dag Dag Airport (KYS)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 102 km from the cityCar hire at NKC airport (Nouakchott)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to FebruaryThe best months to visit
Karakoro River, month by month
Highest water: September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from December to February.
From about 0.0 m³/s in the lowest month to 12 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
Karakoro River: the basin in numbers
42,008 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 356,000people live in the basin
- 8/km²people per km²
- 192maverage altitude of the basin
- 232mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 29.0°Caverage air temperature
What covers the basin
- 5% Cropland
- 33% Pasture
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
Karakoro River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
- 2Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Karakoro 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
- Gleïb Rjil13 km away
- Gleïb el Azreg13 km away
- Affollé15 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.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Senegal River
Senegal1,050 km640 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
Mauritania400 km480 m³/s24 km awayBakoy RiverMali400 km370 m³/s165 km awayBafing RiverMali500 km370 m³/s165 km awayGorgol RiverMauritania258 km66 m³/s220 km awayGambia River
Gambia1,130 km2,000 m³/s464 km awayGeba River
Guinea-Bissau545 km130 m³/s441 km awayCorubal RiverGuinea-Bissau560 km300 m³/s449 km awayTinkisso River
Guinea268 km180 m³/s488 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q846045) · 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 | 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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