River
Orkhon River
1,124 km from source to mouth · Mongolia.
MongoliaFlows into Lake Baikal1st longest in Mongolia
In numbers
Length
1,124km
Average flow
120m³/s
Basin
132,800km²
Drop
1,613m
from 2,214 m to 601 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,124 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 kmKhangai Mountainsat 2,214 m
- 106 kmTsetserleg21,620 people
- 273 kmTamir Rivertributary
- 762 kmTuul Rivertributary
- 938 kmKharaa Rivertributary
- 1,046 kmSühbaatar22,741 people
- 1,124 kmLake Baikalat 601 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Mongolia
At the mouth it carries 120 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 21 seconds. It drops from 2,214 m to 601 m, 1.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 132,800 km², about the size of GR. 1.6 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- SühbaatarLargest city on its banks · 22,741 people
- Baikal International Airport (UUD)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 195 km from the city
- On the water8 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to AugustThe best months to visit
Orkhon River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Best months to visit: from June to August.
From about 0.7 m³/s in the lowest month to 370 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
Orkhon River: the basin in numbers
131,779 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.6millionpeople live in the basin
- 12/km²people per km²
- 1,422maverage altitude of the basin
- 291mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -1.0°Caverage air temperature
- 14%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 12%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 13% Forest
- 4% Cropland
- 68% 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
Orkhon River: what you find on the way
- 4Weirs
- 8Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Orkhon 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.
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Suvarga Hayrhan Uul2.4 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
Orkhon River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
In the same basin
Russia3,487 km19,800 m³/sAngaraRussia1,779 km4,500 m³/sNizhnyaya TunguskaRussia2,989 km3,700 m³/sSelengaRussia1,024 km940 m³/sPodkamennaya TunguskaRussia1,865 km1,600 m³/sAbakanRussia514 km380 m³/sOkaRussia630 km270 m³/sUdaRussia1,203 km300 m³/sIrkutRussia488 km140 m³/sBiryusaRussia830 km350 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q237099) · 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 | 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?
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