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River

Manzanares

92 km from source to mouth · Spain.

SpainSpainFlows into Jarama

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouthMadridVillaverde
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

92km

Average flow

5.7m³/s

Basin

1,245km²

Drop

357m

from 886 m to 529 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

92 km of river and 68 stops on the way: 49 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

886 m529 m
Ventisquero de la Condesaat 886 m0 km
Santillana reservoir6.8 km²6 km
El Pardo Reservoir2.7 km²34 km
Arroyo de Maninatributary39 km
Madrid3,506,730 people55 km
Carabanchel262,339 people59 km
Butarque21,316 people69 km
Jaramaat 529 m92 km
02040608092 km
  1. 0 kmVentisquero de la Condesaat 886 m
  2. 0 kmManzanares el Real6,231 people
  3. 6 kmSantillana reservoir6.8 km²
  4. 9 kmPuente del Batán, Colmenar Viejo
  5. 16 kmPuente del Grajal, Colmenar Viejo
  6. 34 kmEl Pardo Reservoir2.7 km²
  7. 39 kmEl Pardo3,656 people
  8. 39 kmArroyo de Maninatributary
  9. 45 kmArroyo de Trofastributary
  10. 48 kmPuente de San Fernando, Madrid
  11. 49 kmCiudad Universitaria16,364 people
  12. 52 kmCasa de Campo12,767 people
  13. 52 kmPuente de los Franceses
  14. 53 kmMoncloa-Aravaca121,757 people
  15. 54 kmGaztambide22,959 people
  16. 54 kmQueen Victoria's Bridge
  17. 54 kmPuente Verde
  18. 54 kmArapiles24,190 people
  19. 54 kmArgüelles24,997 people
  20. 55 kmUniversidad32,783 people
  21. 55 kmMadrid Centro149,718 people
  22. 55 kmMadrid3,506,730 people
  23. 55 kmSol8,164 people
  24. 56 kmPalacio23,501 people
  25. 56 kmCentro139,687 people
  26. 56 kmBridge of Segovia
  27. 56 kmLa Latina10,747 people
  28. 56 kmPuerta del Angel43,292 people
  29. 57 kmLatina241,672 people
  30. 57 kmCármenes17,903 people
  31. 57 kmBridge of the Principality of Andorra
  32. 57 kmPuente de San Isidro, Madrid
  33. 57 kmImperial22,385 people
  34. 58 kmSan Isidro40,368 people
  35. 59 kmBridge of Toledo
  36. 59 kmArganzuela Bridge
  37. 59 kmCarabanchel262,339 people
  38. 59 kmOpañel33,883 people
  39. 59 kmComillas22,721 people
  40. 59 kmAcacias36,069 people
  41. 60 kmEmbajadores46,204 people
  42. 60 kmLavapiés44,630 people
  43. 60 kmPalos de Moguer25,097 people
  44. 60 kmArganzuela153,304 people
  45. 60 kmPuente de Praga, Madrid
  46. 60 kmAtocha1,949 people
  47. 60 kmChopera19,761 people
  48. 61 kmMoscardó26,579 people
  49. 61 kmDelicias28,575 people
  50. 61 kmZofío14,382 people
  51. 61 kmPuente de la Princesa, Madrid
  52. 61 kmUsera142,746 people
  53. 62 kmAlmendrales22,834 people
  54. 62 kmPradolongo17,878 people
  55. 62 kmArroyo Meaquestributary
  56. 62 kmLegazpi19,468 people
  57. 62 kmPuente de Vallecas241,603 people
  58. 63 kmSan Diego45,104 people
  59. 63 kmOrcasur14,390 people
  60. 64 kmEntrevías35,399 people
  61. 64 kmVilla de Vallecas117,501 people
  62. 65 kmSan Fermín23,598 people
  63. 66 kmVillaverde159,038 people
  64. 66 kmLos Angeles34,827 people
  65. 66 kmLos Rosales37,808 people
  66. 68 kmSan Cristobal17,270 people
  67. 69 kmButarque21,316 people
  68. 90 kmRivas-Vaciamadrid68,405 people
  69. 92 kmLaguna del Campillo0.3 km²
  70. 92 kmJaramaat 529 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

River in Spain

At the mouth it carries 5.7 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 438 seconds. It drops from 886 m to 529 m, 3.9 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,245 km², about the size of MQ. 3.2 million people live in it. Highest water: from November to December; lowest: from June to September. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 82% of a year's flow.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • MadridLargest city on its banks · 3,506,730 people
  • Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 14 km from the cityCar hire at MAD airport (Madrid)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit

Manzanares, month by month

Highest water: from November to December

Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from May to September.

13
5°41 mmJan
12
7°42 mmFeb
8.9
10°35 mmMar
8.4
13°43 mmApr
7.2
16°41 mmMay
4.5
21°26 mmJun
2.1
25°10 mmJul
1.1
24°10 mmAug
2.7
20°30 mmSep
7.8
15°50 mmOct
13
9°57 mmNov
14
6°48 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 1.1 m³/s in the lowest month to 14 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

Car hire at MAD airport (Madrid)Discover CarsSee 

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

Manzanares: the basin in numbers

1,245 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

DammedReservoirs can hold 82% of a year's flow: much of the river is a chain of lakes.
  • 3.2millionpeople live in the basin
  • 2,611/km²people per km²
  • 814maverage altitude of the basin
  • 465mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 12.8°Caverage air temperature
  • 35%protected areas
  • 0.8%covered by lakes
  • 0.1km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 18% Forest
  • 14% Cropland
  • 17% Pasture
  • 51% 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

Manzanares: what you find on the way

  • 11DamsPresa de Santillana, Presa del Grajal, Presa del Embalse de El Pardo and 8 more
  • 27Weirs
  • 1Waterfalls
  • 1Boat ramps
  • 1MarinasEmbarcadero Casa de Campo

From OpenStreetMap, within 1.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Manzanares 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.

  • 3lakes on its wayLakeyas
  • 15mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Lakes and reservoirs (3)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Santillana reservoirkm 46.8km²
  2. El Pardo Reservoirkm 252.7km²
  3. Laguna del Campillokm 670.3km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Mountains at the source (15)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Bola del Mundo12 km away · prominence 102 m2,262m
  2. Cabezas de Hierro11 km away2,381m
  3. La Maliciosa10 km away · prominence 153 m2,227m
  4. Cerro de Valdemartín12 km away2,280m
  5. Cerro La Najarra11 km away2,119m
  6. Alto del Telégrafo14 km away1,975m
  7. Cerro de los Hoyos7.3 km away1,950m
  8. El Yelmo4.4 km away1,717m

7 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Manzanares: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Manzanares: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth10 km across

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

Manzanares in pictures

El río Manzanares (32972459575)
Jorge Tomé Hernando from Manzanares El Real, Spain · CC BY-SA 2.0
View of Madrid and Río Manzanares from Téleferico 20111029 1
DXR · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cuenca del río Manzanares Monte del Pardo 25
Ángel Antonio Caminero Gómez · CC BY-SA 3.0 es
Desembocadura del Manzanares en el Jarama
Miguel303xm · CC BY-SA 2.5

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

It flows into

JaramaSpainSpain194 km32 m³/s

Tributaries (7)

Also: Arroyo Abroñigal, Butarque, Arroyo Meaques, Culebro Stream, Arroyo de Trofas, Arroyo del Mediano, Arroyo de Manina

In the same basin

Tagus RiverPortugalPortugal1,007 km500 m³/sZêzere RiverPortugalPortugal248 km62 m³/sAlbercheSpainSpain100 km15 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

AlbercheSpainSpain100 km15 m³/s113 km awayPisuerga RiverSpainSpain283 km110 m³/s177 km awayEslaSpainSpain285 km140 m³/s250 km awayAragónSpainSpain195 km41 m³/s258 km awayJalón RiverSpainSpain224 km21 m³/s241 km awayCarrión RiverSpainSpain179 km21 m³/s239 km awayTormesSpainSpain284 km42 m³/s272 km awayArgaSpainSpain145 km60 m³/s262 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q16512) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesLakeyas, 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.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit