River
Sakmara
798 km from source to mouth · Russia.
RussiaFlows into Ural River
In numbers
Length
798km
Average flow
140m³/s
Basin
30,200km²
Drop
400m
from 485 m to 85 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
798 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 485 m
- 273 kmIriklinsk Reservoir222 km²
- 368 kmNovotroitsk106,186 people
- 753 kmOrenburg564,773 people
- 798 kmUral Riverat 85 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Bashkiria, Russia
At the mouth it carries 144 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 17 seconds. It drops from 485 m to 85 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 30,200 km², about the size of LS. 1.8 million people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from April to May; lowest: from December to March. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 92% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- OrenburgLargest city on its banks · 564,773 people
- Orenburg Central Airport (REN)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 25 km from the city
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe2 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Sakmara, 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. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 13 m³/s in the lowest month to 670 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
Sakmara: the basin in numbers
82,528 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.8millionpeople live in the basin
- 22/km²people per km²
- 342maverage altitude of the basin
- 347mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 2.5°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
- 0.6%covered by lakes
- 3.3km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 4% Forest
- 40% Cropland
- 40% 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
Sakmara: what you find on the way
- 4Weirs
- 1Waterfalls
- 2Rapids
- 16River beaches
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Sakmara 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Iriklinsk Reservoirkm 256 · 34 m deep222km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Gora Suvanyaktash9.2 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
Sakmara in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Ural River
Kazakhstan2,428 km400 m³/sTributaries (34)
Also: Bolshoy Ik, Salmysh, Barakal, Kuruil, Srednyaya Kargalka, Kasmarka, Kuragan, Vazyam, Batkatly, Birmasbash, Burele, Kargalka, Kuwashly, Kusyaba, Sapsal, Talatshi, Sherda, Zilair, Berdyyelga, Bukharcha, Katrala, Karaelga, Kashlyauar, Keushte
In the same basin
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Kazakhstan264 km7.7 m³/s263 km awayUfaRussia918 km390 m³/s329 km awaySamaraRussia594 km50 m³/s371 km awayUil RiverKazakhstan800 km2.0 m³/s399 km awayBelayaRussia1,430 km950 m³/s469 km awayVyatkaRussia1,314 km890 m³/s484 km awayBig UzenKazakhstan650 km34 m³/s477 km awayMaly UzenKazakhstan638 km8.5 m³/s494 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q68939) · 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?
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