River
Kuiseb River
560 km from source to mouth · Namibia.
NamibiaFlows into Atlantic Ocean4th longest in Namibia
In numbers
Length
560km
Basin
15,500km²
Drop
1,745m
from 1,744 m to -1 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
560 km of river and 0 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,744 m
- 560 kmAtlantic Oceanat -1 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Namibia
It drops from 1,744 m to -1 m, 3.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 15,500 km², about the size of TL. 1,769 people live in it. Highest water: March; lowest: from July to October. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 100% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- Walvis BayLargest city on its banks · 73,598 people
- Walvis Bay International Airport (WVB)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 15 km from the cityCar hire at WVB airport (Walvis Bay)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From January to February and from April to JuneThe best months to visit
Kuiseb River, month by month
Highest water: March
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from January to February and from April to June.
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
Kuiseb River: the basin in numbers
16,814 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1,769people live in the basin
- 0/km²people per km²
- 1,056maverage altitude of the basin
- 156mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 19.1°Caverage air temperature
- 43%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 0.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 50% 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
Kuiseb River: what you find on the way
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Kuiseb 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.
2beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
3mountains at the sourcePeakyas
1island off the mouthIslandyas
Beaches (2)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Dolfynstrand22 km away18.1°C
- Long Beach24 km away18.1°C
Mountains at the source (3)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Turmberg13 km away
- Otjompaue15 km away
- Baumhöhe9.7 km away
Islands off the mouth (1)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Bird Island17 km away0.0km²
Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
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
Kuiseb River in pictures
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1432995) · 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 | Coastya, Peakyas, Islandyas — 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.
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Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit