River
Kunar River
480 km from source to mouth · Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Afghanistan and PakistanFlows into Kabul River2nd longest in Afghanistan
In numbers
Length
480km
Average flow
370m³/s
Basin
26,000km²
Drop
2,972m
from 3,507 m to 535 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
480 km of river and 6 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 3,507 m
- 150 kmBuni50,000 people
- 221 kmChitral31,100 people
- 299 kmBashgal Rivertributary
- 342 kmĀsmār15,708 people
- 371 kmPech Rivertributary
- 371 kmAsadābād48,400 people
- 480 kmKabul Riverat 535 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Afghanistan and Pakistan
At the mouth it carries 367 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 6.8 seconds. It drops from 3,507 m to 535 m, 6.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 26,000 km², about the size of RW. 8.8 million people live in it. Highest water: April; lowest: from August to November. Its dams hold back little of its water (2.7% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- BuniLargest city on its banks · 50,000 people
- Chitral Airport (CJL)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 60 km from the city
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Kunar River, month by month
Highest water: April
Lowest water: from August to November. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 150 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,200 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
Kunar River: the basin in numbers
63,733 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 8.8millionpeople live in the basin
- 138/km²people per km²
- 2,956maverage altitude of the basin
- 643mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 5.4°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
- 3%glaciers
- 11%permafrost
- 0.6km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 14% Forest
- 11% Cropland
- 47% Pasture
- 2% Towns and cities
- 3% Ice
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
Kunar River: what you find on the way
- 9WeirsYamada-seki style and 8 more
- 5Waterfalls
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Kunar 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.
11mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (11)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Ishpeder Zom8.7 km away4,144m
- Suin Zom8.5 km away3,742m
- Palār14 km away3,616m
- Bangolai13 km away3,522m
- Rogholasht Zom12 km away
- Jahanam Zom10 km away
- Dokpālu Zom14 km away
- Dresh Bokht14 km away
3 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
Kunar River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Kabul RiverPakistan460 km1,200 m³/sTributaries (3)
Also: Pech River, Bashgal River, Lutkho River
IndiaNearby
Rivers nearby
Tajikistan921 km1,000 m³/s361 km awayKokcha RiverAfghanistan360 km180 m³/s324 km awayVakhsh RiverTajikistan524 km160 m³/s361 km awayJhelum RiverPakistan774 km540 m³/s391 km awayPamir RiverAfghanistan118 km13 m³/s348 km awayWakhan RiverAfghanistan220 km16 m³/s348 km awayGunt RiverTajikistan296 km100 m³/s355 km awayKunduz RiverAfghanistan420 km160 m³/s356 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q8519) · 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
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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