River
Nura
978 km from source to mouth · Kazakhstan.
KazakhstanFlows into Lake Tengiz5th longest in Kazakhstan
In numbers
Length
978km
Average flow
51m³/s
Basin
60,800km²
Drop
458m
from 762 m to 304 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
978 km of river and 8 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmKarkaralyat 762 m
- 118 kmAshchysu (Nura)tributary
- 250 kmSamarqan Dam45 km²
- 313 kmSherubainuratributary
- 468 kmOzero Zhamankol'1.7 km²
- 721 kmOzero Bestobe3.3 km²
- 832 kmSholakshalkar97 km²
- 910 kmOzero Sultankel'dy36 km²
- 931 kmQoqay lake45 km²
- 978 kmLake Tengizat 304 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Kazakhstan
At the mouth it carries 51 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 49 seconds. It drops from 762 m to 304 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 60,800 km², about the size of LV. 951,000 people live in it. Highest water: 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
- QorghalzhynA town on its banks
- Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport (NQZ)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 113 km from the cityCar hire at NQZ airport (Astana)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Nura, month by month
Highest water: from April to May
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 12 m³/s in the lowest month to 250 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
Nura: the basin in numbers
55,762 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 951,000people live in the basin
- 17/km²people per km²
- 610maverage altitude of the basin
- 286mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 2.4°Caverage air temperature
- 2%protected areas
- 1.5%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 15% Cropland
- 73% 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
Nura: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Nura 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.
6lakes on its wayLakeyas
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (6)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Samarqan Damkm 197 · 12 m deep45km²
- Ozero Zhamankol'km 3691.7km²
- Ozero Bestobekm 5683.3km²
- Sholakshalkarkm 65597km²
- Ozero Sultankel'dykm 71636km²
- Qoqay lakekm 73345km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Qarakolboldy5.6 km away
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
Nura in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (2)
Also: Sherubainura, Ashchysu (Nura)
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1817051) · 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
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.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit