River
Karkheh River
870 km from source to mouth · Iran.
IranFlows into Tigris3rd longest in Iran
In numbers
Length
870km
Average flow
220m³/s
Basin
50,000km²
Drop
1,797m
from 1,803 m to 6 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
870 km of river and 8 stops on the way: 5 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmZagros Mountainsat 1,803 m
- 273 kmAfrineh Waterfall
- 324 kmPoldokhtar26,352 people
- 359 kmSeimare Rivertributary
- 364 kmKashkan Rivertributary
- 614 kmShūsh77,148 people
- 770 kmḤamīdiyeh22,057 people
- 809 kmSūsangerd51,431 people
- 829 kmHoveyzeh19,481 people
- 870 kmTigrisat 6 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Iran
At the mouth it carries 220 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 11 seconds. It drops from 1,803 m to 6 m, 2.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 50,000 km², about the size of CR. 3.5 million people live in it. Highest water: from January to February; lowest: from July to October. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 95% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- ShūshLargest city on its banks · 77,148 people
- Dezful Airport (DEF)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 30 km from the city
- On the water4 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From March to May and from October to NovemberThe best months to visit
Karkheh River, month by month
Highest water: from January to February
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from March to May and from October to November.
From about 28 m³/s in the lowest month to 920 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
Karkheh River: the basin in numbers
47,247 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 3.5millionpeople live in the basin
- 74/km²people per km²
- 1,415maverage altitude of the basin
- 405mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 14.7°Caverage air temperature
- 5%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 7.3km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 3% Forest
- 32% Cropland
- 37% 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
Karkheh River: what you find on the way
- 30WeirsHamidiyeh dam and 29 more
- 4Locks
- 2Waterfalls
- 2Boat ramps
- 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
Karkheh 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
9mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Afrineh Waterfallkm 214
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Mountains at the source (9)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Kūh-e Ḩasan Chalangī15 km away
- Kūh-e Kamar Sōrkh13 km away
- Kūh-e Chūl10 km away
- Kūh-e Kar Shīr12 km away
- Kūh-e Kabīr Kūh8.4 km away
- Kūh-e Garī Gālīs2.9 km away
- Kūh-e Chāhleh Bāgh14 km away
- Kūh-e Kūleh Khūm5.6 km away
1 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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
Karkheh River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Tigris
Iraq1,850 km1,000 m³/sTributaries (3)
Also: Seimare River, Kashkan River, Shavur River
In the same basin
Syria
TurkeyWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1472376) · 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, 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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