River
Makhaleng River
113 km from source to mouth · Lesotho and South Africa.
Lesotho and South AfricaFlows into Orange River3rd longest in Lesotho
In numbers
Length
113km
Average flow
5.9m³/s
Basin
2,516km²
Drop
413m
from 1,856 m to 1,443 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
113 km of river and 1 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,856 m
- 41 kmRamabanta1,971 people
- 113 kmOrange Riverat 1,443 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Lesotho
At the mouth it carries 5.9 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 424 seconds. It drops from 1,856 m to 1,443 m, 3.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 2,516 km², about the size of RE. 144,000 people live in it. Highest water: from February to March; lowest: from June to September. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- RamabantaLargest city on its banks · 1,971 people
- Moshoeshoe I International Airport (MSU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 32 km from the cityCar hire at MSU airport (Maseru)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- April and from September to DecemberThe best months to visit
Makhaleng River, month by month
Highest water: from February to March
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: April and from September to December.
From about 1.5 m³/s in the lowest month to 15 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
Makhaleng River: the basin in numbers
2,516 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 144,000people live in the basin
- 57/km²people per km²
- 1,966maverage altitude of the basin
- 753mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 13.2°Caverage air temperature
What covers the basin
- 3% Forest
- 8% Cropland
- 57% Pasture
- 2% 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
Makhaleng River: what you find on the way
- 2WaterfallsQiloane Falls
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Makhaleng 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.
4mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (4)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Pitsaning7.8 km away
- Tadiakloka12 km away
- Tayanatayana7.1 km away
- Thabana Tsekanyane13 km away
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.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Orange RiverSouth Africa2,200 km800 m³/s
NamibiaNearby
Rivers nearby
Lesotho200 km15 m³/s69 km awayCaledon RiverSouth Africa480 km160 m³/s142 km awayMalibamat'so RiverLesotho140 km36 m³/s134 km awayGreat Kei RiverSouth Africa520 km67 m³/s304 km awayVaal RiverSouth Africa1,120 km120 m³/s385 km awayTugela RiverSouth Africa520 km170 m³/s402 km awayGreat Fish RiverSouth Africa644 km26 m³/s383 km awayGamtoos RiverSouth Africa645 km19 m³/s491 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1886345) · 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 | 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
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