River
Karatal River
390 km from source to mouth · Kazakhstan.
KazakhstanFlows into Lake Balkhash
In numbers
Length
390km
Average flow
67m³/s
Basin
19,100km²
Drop
1,587m
from 1,925 m to 338 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
390 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmDzungarian Alatauat 1,925 m
- 145 kmBalpyk Bi11,810 people
- 161 kmKoksu Rivertributary
- 183 kmBizhetributary
- 390 kmLake Balkhashat 338 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Kazakhstan
At the mouth it carries 67 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 37 seconds. It drops from 1,925 m to 338 m, 4.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 19,100 km², about the size of FJ. 239,000 people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from April to May; lowest: from January to March and September. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Balpyk BiLargest city on its banks · 11,810 people
- Taldykorgan Airport (TDK)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 30 km from the cityCar hire at ALA airport (Almaty)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water3 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Karatal River, month by month
Highest water: from April to May
Lowest water: from January to March and September. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 0.0 m³/s in the lowest month to 190 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
Karatal River: the basin in numbers
17,694 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 239,000people live in the basin
- 13/km²people per km²
- 1,222maverage altitude of the basin
- 383mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 4.4°Caverage air temperature
- 14%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 8%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 4% Forest
- 8% Cropland
- 71% 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
Karatal River: what you find on the way
- 3Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Karatal 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.
2mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (2)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Bezsonov peak15 km away
- Gora Araltobe7.3 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
Tributaries (2)
Also: Koksu River, Bizhe
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Kazakhstan316 km11 m³/s84 km awayLepsy RiverKazakhstan417 km19 m³/s91 km awayAyaguz RiverKazakhstan492 km8.8 m³/s158 km awayIli RiverKazakhstan1,439 km480 m³/s234 km awayCharyn RiverKazakhstan427 km35 m³/s336 km awayChilik RiverKazakhstan245 km32 m³/s336 km awayChong-Kemin River
Kyrgyzstan116 km22 m³/s433 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1429523) · 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?
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