River
Malibamat'so River
140 km from source to mouth · Lesotho.
LesothoFlows into Orange River2nd longest in Lesotho
In numbers
Length
140km
Average flow
36m³/s
Basin
4,441km²
Drop
660m
from 2,444 m to 1,784 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
140 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 2,444 m
- 46 kmMokhotlong14,461 people
- 140 kmOrange Riverat 1,784 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in northern Lesotho
At the mouth it carries 36 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 69 seconds. It drops from 2,444 m to 1,784 m, 4.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 4,441 km², about the size of CV. 117,000 people live in it. Highest water: from January to February; lowest: from June to September. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- MokhotlongLargest city on its banks · 14,461 people
- Pietermaritzburg Airport (PZB)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 135 km from the cityCar hire at PZB airport (Pietermaritzburg)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From February to March and from October to DecemberThe best months to visit
Malibamat'so River, month by month
Highest water: from January to February
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from February to March and from October to December.
From about 9.6 m³/s in the lowest month to 84 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
Malibamat'so River: the basin in numbers
4,441 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 117,000people live in the basin
- 26/km²people per km²
- 2,689maverage altitude of the basin
- 748mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 8.6°Caverage air temperature
What covers the basin
- 10% Cropland
- 75% Pasture
- 1% 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
Malibamat'so River: what you find on the way
- 6WeirsPolihali Weir and 5 more
- 2Waterfalls
- 1Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Malibamat'so 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.
9mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (9)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Thabana Ntlenyana9.2 km away · prominence 2,390 m3,482m
- Kepising11 km away2,926m
- Mkomazi9.0 km away
- Litšoene13 km away
- Thabana Likorong11 km away
- Redi9.4 km away
- Nkangala15 km away
- Nhlangeni9.7 km away
1 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
Malibamat'so River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Orange River
South Africa2,200 km800 m³/s
NamibiaNearby
Rivers nearby
Lesotho200 km15 m³/s74 km awayMakhaleng RiverLesotho113 km5.9 m³/s134 km awayTugela RiverSouth Africa520 km170 m³/s273 km awayCaledon RiverSouth Africa480 km160 m³/s276 km awayGreat Kei RiverSouth Africa520 km67 m³/s348 km awayVaal RiverSouth Africa1,120 km120 m³/s495 km awayGreat Fish RiverSouth Africa644 km26 m³/s462 km awayMbabane River
Eswatini73 km7.4 m³/s423 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q4785397) · 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
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 waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit