River
Moksha
656 km from source to mouth · Russia.
RussiaFlows into Oka
In numbers
Length
656km
Average flow
95m³/s
Basin
51,000km²
Drop
96m
from 173 m to 77 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
656 km of river and 39 stops on the way: 7 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 173 m
- 9 kmMokshan11,652 people
- 21 kmAzyas'tributary
- 38 kmYulovkatributary
- 41 kmSkachkitributary
- 41 kmMuromkatributary
- 87 kmKerkatributary
- 95 kmIvatributary
- 97 kmAtmistributary
- 103 kmLomovkatributary
- 152 kmNarovchat4,340 people
- 152 kmKauretstributary
- 153 kmSheldaistributary
- 170 kmPanzhatributary
- 200 kmIssatributary
- 200 kmUnuytributary
- 212 kmKovylkino21,400 people
- 264 kmBolshaya Azyastributary
- 266 kmLepyevskytributary
- 279 kmRyabkatributary
- 283 kmKrasnoslobodsk10,748 people
- 285 kmGumenkatributary
- 294 kmShapatributary
- 296 kmSivintributary
- 323 kmVarmatributary
- 331 kmNuluytributary
- 331 kmUrkattributary
- 383 kmBolshoy Akseltributary
- 383 kmUreytributary
- 398 kmTemnikov8,252 people
- 431 kmSatistributary
- 437 kmSarmatributary
- 450 kmVarnavatributary
- 461 kmTen’gushevo4,231 people
- 461 kmVedyazhatributary
- 482 kmYuzgatributary
- 505 kmYermishtributary
- 517 kmKadom6,027 people
- 525 kmVadtributary
- 587 kmTsnatributary
- 656 kmOkaat 77 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Mordovia, Penza, Ryazan, and Nizhny Novgorod Oblasts, Russia
At the mouth it carries 95 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 26 seconds. It drops from 173 m to 77 m, 0.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 51,000 km², about the size of CR. 1.3 million people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from April to May; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- KovylkinoLargest city on its banks · 21,400 people
- Saransk International Airport (SKX)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 85 km from the city
- From May to AugustThe best months to visit
Moksha, month by month
Highest water: from April to May
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to March. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from May to August.
From about 43 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,500 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
Moksha: the basin in numbers
50,378 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 26/km²people per km²
- 164maverage altitude of the basin
- 552mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 4.8°Caverage air temperature
- 3%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 25% Forest
- 48% Cropland
- 15% 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
Moksha: what you find on the way
- 2Weirs
- 1Waterfalls
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
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
OkaTributaries (42)
Also: Tsna, Vad, Atmis, Sivin, Yermish, Urey, Bolshaya Azyas, Bolshoy Aksel, Varma, Varnava, Gumenka, Issa, Lomovka, Panzha, Sarma, Ryabka, Yuzga, Urkat, Urzeva, Sheldais, Azyas', Vedyazha, Iva, Kerka
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q595213) · 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 |
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.

