River
Mopan River
38 km from source to mouth · Belize.
BelizeFlows into Belize River3rd longest in Belize
In numbers
Length
38km
Average flow
93m³/s
Basin
3,676km²
Drop
82m
from 135 m to 53 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
38 km of river and 10 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmPetén Departmentat 135 m
- 18 kmMelchor de Mencos30,682 people
- 18 kmRaudales de Garbutt
- 19 kmBenque Viejo el Carmen7,160 people
- 21 kmSan Jose Soccoths2,424 people
- 24 kmLa Clarissa Fall
- 31 kmPaslow Fall
- 33 kmSalvador Fernandez Bridge
- 33 kmBullet Tree Falls3,932 people
- 38 kmSanta Familia2,600 people
- 38 kmSan Ignacio21,229 people
- 38 kmBelize Riverat 53 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Guatemala and Belize
At the mouth it carries 93 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 27 seconds. It drops from 135 m to 53 m, 2.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 3,676 km², about the size of CV. 51,000 people live in it. Highest water: July and October; lowest: from February to May. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Melchor de MencosLargest city on its banks · 30,682 people
- Mundo Maya International Airport (FRS)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 78 km from the cityCar hire at BZE airport (Belize City)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From February to AprilThe best months to visit
Mopan River, month by month
Highest water: July and October
Lowest water: from February to May. Best months to visit: from February to April.
From about 29 m³/s in the lowest month to 170 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
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
Mopan River: the basin in numbers
3,676 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 51,000people live in the basin
- 14/km²people per km²
- 414maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,747mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 23.9°Caverage air temperature
- 71%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 84% Forest
- 6% 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
Mopan River: what you find on the way
- 3WaterfallsGarbutt's Falls, Clarissa Falls
- 1Rapids
- 2Ferry piersXunantunich Ferry
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Mopan 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.
3waterfalls on the riverCascadyas
Waterfalls (3)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Raudales de Garbuttkm 18
- La Clarissa Fallkm 24
- Paslow Fallkm 31
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
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
Belize RiverBelize290 km200 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
Mexico150 km130 m³/s167 km awayMotagua River
Guatemala486 km310 m³/s184 km awayDulce RiverGuatemala43 km340 m³/s161 km awayPasión RiverGuatemala353 km320 m³/s175 km awayNew RiverBelize132 km25 m³/s149 km awayUlúa River
Honduras358 km440 m³/s201 km awayUsumacinta RiverMexico560 km6.5 m³/s402 km awayGrijalva RiverMexico480 km2,800 m³/s411 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1408983) · 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 | Cascadyas — 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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