River
Madre de Dios River
1,060 km from source to mouth · Bolivia and Peru.
Bolivia and PeruFlows into Beni River3rd longest in Bolivia
In numbers
Length
1,060km
Average flow
4.9m³/s
Basin
110,000km²
Drop
160m
from 280 m to 120 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
1,060 km of river and 18 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmCordillera Vilcanotaat 280 m
- 0 kmManú Rivertributary
- 0 kmAlto Madre de Dios Rivertributary
- 161 kmLaguna San Juan0.5 km²
- 180 kmLaguna Pañacocha0.8 km²
- 189 kmLaguna Endara0.4 km²
- 193 kmLos Amigos Rivertributary
- 199 kmLaguna Caracol0.3 km²
- 260 kmInambari Rivertributary
- 382 kmLas Piedras Rivertributary
- 397 kmPuerto Maldonado85,024 people
- 397 kmPresident Guillermo Billinghurst Bridge
- 402 kmTambopata Rivertributary
- 485 kmHeath Rivertributary
- 525 kmVentarrón Lake2.4 km²
- 773 kmManupare Rivertributary
- 860 kmMurillo Lake7.8 km²
- 903 kmMentiroso Lake6.9 km²
- 1,023 kmRiberalta99,070 people
- 1,060 kmBeni Riverat 120 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Peru and Bolivia
At the mouth it carries 4.9 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 509 seconds. It drops from 280 m to 120 m, 0.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 110,000 km², about the size of CU. 287,000 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.
Where to start
- RiberaltaLargest city on its banks · 99,070 people
- Capitán Av. Selin Zeitun Lopez Airport (RIB)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 2 km from the cityCar hire at RBR airport (Rio Branco)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water12 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to AugustThe best months to visit
Madre de Dios River, month by month
Highest water: from February to March
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from May to August.
From about 2,000 m³/s in the lowest month to 12,200 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
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
Madre de Dios River: the basin in numbers
125,557 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 287,000people live in the basin
- 2/km²people per km²
- 861maverage altitude of the basin
- 2,359mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 22.6°Caverage air temperature
- 52%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 86% Forest
- 1% Cropland
- 8% 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
Madre de Dios River: what you find on the way
- 10Ferry piersLocal Transportation (Small boat rent), Barca de Puerto Maldonado, Puerto Madre de Dios and 7 more
- 2Marinas
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Madre de Dios 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.
7lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (7)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Laguna San Juankm 1410.5km²
- Laguna Pañacochakm 1570.8km²
- Laguna Endarakm 1650.4km²
- Laguna Caracolkm 1740.3km²
- Ventarrón Lakekm 4582.4km²
- Murillo Lakekm 7527.8km²
- Mentiroso Lakekm 7896.9km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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
Madre de Dios River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Beni RiverBolivia1,100 km8.9 m³/sTributaries (10)
Also: Manú River, Inambari River, Tambopata River, Las Piedras River, Heath River, Los Amigos River, Manupare River, Alto Madre de Dios River, Blanco River, Colorado River
In the same basin
Brazil6,400 km209,000 m³/sRio NegroBrazil2,250 km30,000 m³/sMadeira RiverBrazil1,450 km31,200 m³/sMarañón RiverPeru1,737 km16,700 m³/sUcayali RiverPeru1,460 km12,600 m³/sJapurá RiverBrazil2,820 km13,900 m³/sXingu RiverBrazil1,640 km9,700 m³/sMamoré RiverBrazil1,930 km11,600 m³/sJuruá RiverBrazil3,100 km4,800 m³/sTapajós RiverBrazil1,930 km13,000 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q849693) · 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 — 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
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