River
Marghab River
978 km from source to mouth · Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.
Turkmenistan and AfghanistanFlows into Karakum Canal2nd longest in Turkmenistan
In numbers
Length
978km
Average flow
130m³/s
Basin
46,900km²
Drop
2,741m
from 2,919 m to 178 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
978 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmParopamisusat 2,919 m
- 510 kmKashan Deryasytributary
- 518 kmTagtabazar13,312 people
- 549 kmKushk Rivertributary
- 754 kmYolöten37,705 people
- 775 kmNizhne-Gindukushskoye Vodokhranilishche5.7 km²
- 978 kmKarakum Canalat 178 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Central Asia
At the mouth it carries 134 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 19 seconds. It drops from 2,919 m to 178 m, 2.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 46,900 km², about the size of BT. 1.2 million people live in it. Highest water: March; lowest: from July to October. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (39% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- YolötenLargest city on its banks · 37,705 people
- Mary International Airport (MYP)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 55 km from the city
- From May to June and from August to OctoberThe best months to visit
Marghab River, month by month
Highest water: March
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from May to June and from August to October.
From about 13 m³/s in the lowest month to 640 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
Marghab River: the basin in numbers
56,839 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.2millionpeople live in the basin
- 22/km²people per km²
- 1,319maverage altitude of the basin
- 309mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 11.4°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 1.6km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 23% Cropland
- 60% 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
Marghab River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Marghab 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
20mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Nizhne-Gindukushskoye Vodokhranilishchekm 6075.7km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (20)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Kōh-e Sang-e Bar Hazār15 km away3,634m
- Kōh-e Sayyid12 km away3,624m
- Sar-e Kakrak11 km away3,585m
- Mīānah Band6.8 km away3,581m
- Ḩājī-Gadāy14 km away3,546m
- Band-e Pusht-e Khar15 km away3,521m
- Ghōr-e Siyāh9.8 km away3,492m
- Chārf5.2 km away3,482m
12 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
Marghab River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
In the same basin
Uzbekistan
IranWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q8553) · 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
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