River
Senqunyane River
200 km from source to mouth · Lesotho.
LesothoFlows into Orange River1st longest in Lesotho
In numbers
Length
200km
Average flow
15m³/s
Basin
3,488km²
Drop
776m
from 2,290 m to 1,514 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
200 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 kmSourceat 2,290 m
- 55 kmMohale Dam
- 87 kmMarakabeis1,659 people
- 200 kmOrange Riverat 1,514 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Lesotho
At the mouth it carries 15 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 163 seconds. It drops from 2,290 m to 1,514 m, 3.9 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 3,488 km², about the size of CV. 91,000 people live in it. Highest water: from January to March; lowest: from June to September. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 196% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- MarakabeisLargest city on its banks · 1,659 people
- Moshoeshoe I International Airport (MSU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 58 km from the cityCar hire at MSU airport (Maseru)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From March to April, from September to October and DecemberThe best months to visit
Senqunyane River, month by month
Highest water: from January to March
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from March to April, from September to October and December.
From about 1.7 m³/s in the lowest month to 32 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
Senqunyane River: the basin in numbers
3,488 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 91,000people live in the basin
- 26/km²people per km²
- 2,405maverage altitude of the basin
- 743mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 10.6°Caverage air temperature
- 0.7%covered by lakes
- 0.9km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 10% Cropland
- 58% 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
Senqunyane River: what you find on the way
- 3Weirs
- 4Waterfalls
- 1Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Senqunyane 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.
2mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (2)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Ditsuming3.6 km away
- Duoklaning10 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
Senqunyane River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Orange River
South Africa2,200 km800 m³/s
NamibiaNearby
Rivers nearby
Lesotho113 km5.9 m³/s69 km awayMalibamat'so RiverLesotho140 km36 m³/s74 km awayCaledon RiverSouth Africa480 km160 m³/s209 km awayGreat Kei RiverSouth Africa520 km67 m³/s294 km awayTugela RiverSouth Africa520 km170 m³/s334 km awayGreat Fish RiverSouth Africa644 km26 m³/s397 km awayVaal RiverSouth Africa1,120 km120 m³/s452 km awayMbabane River
Eswatini73 km7.4 m³/s497 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q177862) · 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 | 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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