River
Litani River
140 km from source to mouth · Lebanon.
LebanonFlows into Mediterranean Sea1st longest in Lebanon
In numbers
Length
140km
Average flow
23m³/s
Basin
1,940km²
Drop
989m
from 989 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
140 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 kmSourceat 989 m
- 70 kmAaïtanît6,800 people
- 70 kmLake Qaraoun5.5 km²
- 139 kmLeontes Bridge
- 140 kmMediterranean Seaat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Lebanon
At the mouth it carries 23 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 109 seconds. It drops from 989 m to 0 m, 7.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,940 km², about the size of MU. 449,000 people live in it. Highest water: from January to February; lowest: from June to September. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (22% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- AaïtanîtLargest city on its banks · 6,800 people
- Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport (BEY)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 33 km from the cityCar hire at BEY airport (Beirut)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Litani River, month by month
Highest water: from January to February
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 2.1 m³/s in the lowest month to 72 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
Litani River: the basin in numbers
2,177 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 449,000people live in the basin
- 206/km²people per km²
- 1,097maverage altitude of the basin
- 760mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 14.5°Caverage air temperature
- 5%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 0.2km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 9% Forest
- 49% Cropland
- 2% Pasture
- 15% 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
Litani River: what you find on the way
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Litani 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
38mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Qaraounkm 705.5km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (38)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Aafrah14 km away1,645m
- Jabal es Saaïdé4.2 km away
- Qalaat Tannour11 km away
- Mantarat al Mushabbar15 km away
- Dahr el Slouqi11 km away
- Machraa Laaouej15 km away
- Qranet en Njassa13 km away
- El Yazate12 km away
30 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
Litani River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (1)
Also: Wadi Saluki
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Lebanon65 km5.0 m³/s37 km awayYarmuk
Israel57 km2.6 m³/s83 km awayKishon RiverIsrael70 km7.6 m³/s61 km awayNahr al-KalbLebanon31 km3.2 m³/s76 km awayBarada
Syria71 km7.3 m³/s127 km awayJordan River
Jordan252 km52 m³/s196 km awayZarqa RiverJordan65 km6.5 m³/s139 km awayYarkon RiverIsrael28 km12 m³/s144 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q456415) · 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 | Lakeyas, 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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