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River

Khabur

194 km from source to mouth · Turkey and Iraq.

TurkeyIraqTurkey and IraqFlows into Tigris

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouthZakho
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

194km

Average flow

150m³/s

Basin

6,055km²

Drop

1,790m

from 2,128 m to 338 m

Countries

2

The journey

From source to mouth

194 km of river and 6 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

2,128 m338 m
Sourceat 2,128 m0 km
Beytüşşebap8,354 people30 km
Begova15,000 people84 km
Delal Bridge157 km
Zakho219,006 people158 km
Tigrisat 338 m194 km
050100150194 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 2,128 m
  2. 30 kmBeytüşşebap8,354 people
  3. 84 kmBegova15,000 people
  4. 157 kmDelal Bridge
  5. 158 kmZakho219,006 people
  6. 158 kmZaxo95,052 people
  7. 169 kmHezil Suyutributary
  8. 194 kmTigrisat 338 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

Tributary of the Tigris

At the mouth it carries 148 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 17 seconds. It drops from 2,128 m to 338 m, 9.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 6,055 km², about the size of PS. 750,000 people live in it. Highest water: from February to March; lowest: from July to October. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

Khabur, month by month

Highest water: from February to March

Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: May and from September to October.

230
4°126 mmJan
270
6°134 mmFeb
270
10°128 mmMar
230
14°108 mmApr
150
20°48 mmMay
71
26°1 mmJun
24
31°0 mmJul
14
30°0 mmAug
14
26°2 mmSep
22
19°30 mmOct
74
12°82 mmNov
160
6°121 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 14 m³/s in the lowest month to 270 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

Khabur: the basin in numbers

6,055 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Free-flowingDams upstream can hold only 0.0% of a year's flow: the river still keeps its natural rhythm.
  • 750,000people live in the basin
  • 124/km²people per km²
  • 1,420maverage altitude of the basin
  • 780mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 13.2°Caverage air temperature

What covers the basin

  • 1% Forest
  • 20% Cropland
  • 8% Pasture
  • 4% 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

Khabur: what you find on the way

  • 4Dams
  • 7Weirs
  • 1Waterfalls

From OpenStreetMap, within 1.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Khabur 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.

  • 13mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Mountains at the source (13)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Leyzok Tepe7.2 km away2,976m
  2. Kurt Tepesi14 km away2,637m
  3. Yurt Dağı12 km away
  4. Elkiyayla Daglari10 km away
  5. Damla Dağı8.5 km away
  6. Bincan Hill6.3 km away
  7. Ekmala Dağı13 km away
  8. Calaban Dağı12 km away

5 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Khabur: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Khabur: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth11 km across

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

Khabur in pictures

City of Zakho-Zaxo in Iraqi Kurdistan
Moplayer · CC BY-SA 4.0
Khabur18zaxo
Kurdistantolive · CC BY-SA 4.0
Khabur18har
Kurdistantolive · CC BY-SA 4.0
River in Zakho (Khabur River)
Levi Clancy · CC BY-SA 4.0

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q607977) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesPeakyas — 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?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit