River
Sankarani River
400 km from source to mouth · Mali, Guinea and Ivory Coast.
Mali, Guinea and Ivory CoastFlows into Niger River3rd longest in Mali
In numbers
Length
400km
Average flow
260m³/s
Basin
35,500km²
Drop
59m
from 383 m to 324 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
400 km of river and 2 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmFouta Djallonat 383 m
- 148 kmMandiana19,110 people
- 342 kmLake Sélingué336 km²
- 400 kmNiger Riverat 324 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in West Africa
At the mouth it carries 265 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 9.4 seconds. It drops from 383 m to 324 m, 0.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 35,500 km², about the size of TW. 648,000 people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from January to April. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (22% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- MandianaLargest city on its banks · 19,110 people
- Modibo Keita International Airport (BKO)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 227 km from the city
- On the water37 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From November to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Sankarani River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from November to January.
From about 46 m³/s in the lowest month to 860 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
Sankarani River: the basin in numbers
33,398 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 648,000people live in the basin
- 20/km²people per km²
- 469maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,464mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 25.9°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
- 1.0%covered by lakes
- 2.2km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 53% Forest
- 11% Cropland
- 35% 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
Sankarani River: what you find on the way
- 37Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Sankarani 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Sélinguékm 355336km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Bolonbatindi12 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
Sankarani River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Niger River
Nigeria4,180 km8,600 m³/sTributaries (1)
Also: Dion
In the same basin
Nigeria1,370 km3,200 m³/sBani RiverMali430 km510 m³/sKaduna RiverNigeria550 km640 m³/sMékrou River
Niger410 km29 m³/sFaro RiverNigeria305 km360 m³/sTinkisso RiverGuinea268 km180 m³/sSokoto RiverNigeria600 km290 m³/sGongola RiverNigeria531 km210 m³/sSota River
Benin250 km46 m³/sMilo RiverGuinea330 km190 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1390033) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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
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