River
Merkys
206 km from source to mouth · Lithuania and Belarus.
Lithuania and BelarusFlows into Neman5th longest in Lithuania
In numbers
Length
206km
Average flow
33m³/s
Basin
4,440km²
Drop
75m
from 146 m to 71 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
206 km of river and 10 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 146 m
- 23 kmKernavas0.7 km²
- 47 kmLuknatributary
- 53 kmŠalčiatributary
- 75 kmGlūkas0.6 km²
- 80 kmVarėnėtributary
- 80 kmSenoji Varėna1,073 people
- 83 kmGlėbas1.1 km²
- 95 kmLavysas1.4 km²
- 101 kmŪlatributary
- 120 kmSkroblustributary
- 120 kmNemanat 71 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Southern Lithuania and Northern Belarus
At the mouth it carries 33 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 75 seconds. It drops from 146 m to 71 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 4,440 km², about the size of CV. 70,000 people live in it. Highest water: April; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Senoji VarėnaLargest city on its banks · 1,073 people
- Vilnius International Airport (VNO)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 64 km from the cityCar hire at VNO airport (Vilnius)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to AugustThe best months to visit
Merkys, month by month
Highest water: April
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from January to February. Best months to visit: from May to August.
From about 13 m³/s in the lowest month to 62 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
Merkys: the basin in numbers
3,902 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 70,000people live in the basin
- 18/km²people per km²
- 147maverage altitude of the basin
- 654mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 6.1°Caverage air temperature
- 17%protected areas
- 0.9%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 51% Forest
- 25% Cropland
- 9% 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
Merkys: what you find on the way
- 1Canoe put-ins
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Merkys 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.
4lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (4)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Kernavaskm 230.7km²
- Glūkaskm 750.6km²
- Glėbaskm 831.1km²
- Lavysaskm 951.4km²
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
Merkys in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
NemanLithuania937 km680 m³/sTributaries (10)
Also: Ūla, Šalčia, Varėnė, Spengla, Verseka, Grūda, Lukna, Skroblus, Derežna, Cirvija
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Lithuania145 km220 m³/s31 km awayNerisLithuania510 km180 m³/s86 km awayŠčaraBelarus325 km31 m³/s86 km awayNevėžisLithuania210 km33 m³/s92 km awayVilniaLithuania80 km5.6 m³/s93 km awayŠventojiLithuania246 km55 m³/s105 km awayDubysaLithuania146 km20 m³/s114 km awayBiebrza
Poland155 km76 m³/s161 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1419589) · 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
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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