River
Orontes River
571 km from source to mouth · Turkey, Lebanon and Syria.
Turkey, Lebanon and SyriaFlows into Mediterranean Sea4th longest in Turkey
In numbers
Length
571km
Average flow
30m³/s
Basin
23,000km²
Drop
982m
from 984 m to 2 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
571 km of river and 23 stops on the way: 20 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 984 m
- 7 kmDeïr el Ahmar5,947 people
- 20 kmChaat6,322 people
- 65 kmEl Hermel22,250 people
- 110 kmKafr Mūsá Al-Hmidiya3,000 people
- 128 kmLake Homs28 km²
- 162 kmAl Ghanţū9,412 people
- 192 kmBuḩayrat ar Rastan2.9 km²
- 193 kmAr Rastan53,152 people
- 251 kmḨamāh460,602 people
- 291 kmḨalfāyā23,403 people
- 298 kmMaharda17,578 people
- 307 kmTremseh6,927 people
- 414 kmJisr ash Shughūr39,311 people
- 461 kmHacıpaşa3,274 people
- 505 kmAfrin Rivertributary
- 511 kmKastal5,637 people
- 512 kmNarlıca18,445 people
- 525 kmAntakya399,045 people
- 528 kmHıdırbey27,057 people
- 529 kmDursunlu5,147 people
- 534 kmGümüşgöze3,925 people
- 558 kmSutaşı6,402 people
- 561 kmSamandağ123,447 people
- 571 kmMediterranean Seaat 2 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Western Asia
At the mouth it carries 30 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 83 seconds. It drops from 984 m to 2 m, 1.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 23,000 km², about the size of DJ. 5.0 million people live in it. Highest water: from January to February; lowest: from July to October. Its dams hold back little of its water (6.4% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- ḨamāhLargest city on its banks · 460,602 people
- Latakia International Airport (LTK)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 79 km from the cityCar hire at HTY airport (Antakya)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From April to June and from September to OctoberThe best months to visit
Orontes River, month by month
Highest water: from January to February
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from April to June and from September to October.
From about 30 m³/s in the lowest month to 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
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
Orontes River: the basin in numbers
23,748 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 5.0millionpeople live in the basin
- 211/km²people per km²
- 668maverage altitude of the basin
- 536mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 15.9°Caverage air temperature
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 0.4km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 3% Forest
- 52% Cropland
- 15% Pasture
- 9% 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
Orontes River: what you find on the way
- 15Weirs
- 1LocksParmenius
- 1Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Orontes 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.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
2beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
73mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Homskm 9728km²
- Buḩayrat ar Rastankm 1442.9km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Beaches (2)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Kamışlık Koyu10 km away · cove28.5°C
- Kassab Bay11 km away · cove28.5°C
Mountains at the source (73)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Qornet ez Zein12 km away
- Qornet el Aajra14 km away
- Qornet Oum Moustapha8.6 km away
- Dahret es Sarj11 km away
- Jabal Sayed Ahmed14 km away
- Chmis el Mjar7.0 km away
- Dahr Choaab el Baal4.4 km away
- Harf el Qach10 km away
65 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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
Orontes River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (1)
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Turkey131 km61 m³/s39 km awayCeyhan RiverTurkey474 km230 m³/s68 km awaySeyhan RiverTurkey560 km130 m³/s121 km awayRiver GöksuTurkey260 km92 m³/s174 km awayPedieos
Cyprus100 km15 m³/s210 km awayNahr al-KalbLebanon31 km3.2 m³/s235 km awayGialiasCyprus88 km2.6 m³/s210 km awayLitani RiverLebanon140 km23 m³/s308 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q188871) · 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, Coastya, 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.
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Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
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Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit