River
Sota River
250 km from source to mouth · Benin.
BeninFlows into Niger River3rd longest in Benin
In numbers
Length
250km
Average flow
46m³/s
Basin
15,000km²
Drop
120m
from 279 m to 159 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
250 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 279 m
- 53 kmTassiné Rivertributary
- 140 kmCascades De Sosso
- 246 kmMalanville64,639 people
- 250 kmNiger Riverat 159 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Benin
At the mouth it carries 46 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 54 seconds. It drops from 279 m to 159 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 15,000 km², about the size of TL. 476,000 people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- MalanvilleLargest city on its banks · 64,639 people
- Diori Hamani International Airport (NIM)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 222 km from the cityCar hire at NIM airport (Niamey)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From December to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Sota River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from December to January.
From about 6.2 m³/s in the lowest month to 160 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
Sota River: the basin in numbers
13,583 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 476,000people live in the basin
- 35/km²people per km²
- 299maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,059mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 27.2°Caverage air temperature
- 32%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 28% Forest
- 11% Cropland
- 7% 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.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Sota 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.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Cascades De Sossokm 131
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
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
Sota River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Niger River
Nigeria4,180 km8,600 m³/sTributaries (2)
Also: Tassiné River, Bouli River
In the same basin
Nigeria1,370 km3,200 m³/sBani River
Mali430 km510 m³/sSankarani RiverMali400 km260 m³/sKaduna RiverNigeria550 km640 m³/sMékrou River
Niger410 km29 m³/sFaro RiverNigeria305 km360 m³/sTinkisso River
Guinea268 km180 m³/sSokoto RiverNigeria600 km290 m³/sGongola RiverNigeria531 km210 m³/sMilo RiverGuinea330 km190 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
Niger410 km29 m³/s93 km awaySokoto RiverNigeria600 km290 m³/s94 km awayTapoa RiverNiger260 km8.9 m³/s123 km awaySirba RiverNiger350 km780 m³/s280 km awaySingou
Burkina Faso311 km54 m³/s271 km awayKaduna RiverNigeria550 km640 m³/s435 km awayKawa
Togo72 km46 m³/s368 km awayRed Volta
Ghana313 km23 m³/s458 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2411899) · 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 | Cascadyas — 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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