River
Struma
415 km from source to mouth · Greece and Bulgaria.
Greece and BulgariaFlows into Strymonian gulf1st longest in Greece
In numbers
Length
415km
Average flow
80m³/s
Basin
17,300km²
Drop
729m
from 728 m to -1 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
415 km of river and 25 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmVitoshaat 728 m
- 0 kmStudena Reservoir0.8 km²
- 21 kmPernik82,467 people
- 39 kmRadomir14,494 people
- 60 kmArkatatributary
- 63 kmPchelina Reservoir4.4 km²
- 86 kmTreklyano Rivertributary
- 86 kmPolska skakavitsa50 m
- 94 kmDragovišticatributary
- 103 kmSovolyanska Bistritsatributary
- 139 kmChurch of Saint Theodore, Boboshevo
- 148 kmDzhermantributary
- 154 kmRilska Rivertributary
- 164 kmBlagoevgrad64,171 people
- 170 kmBistritsatributary
- 183 kmSimitli6,729 people
- 194 kmStara Kresna3,586 people
- 205 kmKresna4,117 people
- 235 kmLebnitsatributary
- 236 kmSandanska Bistritsatributary
- 248 kmStrumicatributary
- 263 kmPirinska Bistritsatributary
- 275 kmOld railway bridge of Strymon
- 317 kmLake Kerkini53 km²
- 392 kmAngitistributary
- 411 kmEion
- 415 kmStrymonian gulfat -1 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Bulgaria and Greece
At the mouth it carries 80 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 31 seconds. It drops from 728 m to -1 m, 1.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 17,300 km², about the size of SZ. 909,000 people live in it. Highest water: from December to January; lowest: from August to September. Its dams hold back little of its water (5.1% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- PernikLargest city on its banks · 82,467 people
- Sofia Airport (SOF)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 33 km from the cityCar hire at SOF airport (Sofia)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to OctoberThe best months to visit
Struma, month by month
Highest water: from December to January
Lowest water: from August to September. Best months to visit: from June to October.
From about 39 m³/s in the lowest month to 220 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
Struma: the basin in numbers
16,800 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 909,000people live in the basin
- 54/km²people per km²
- 721maverage altitude of the basin
- 545mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 10.5°Caverage air temperature
- 17%protected areas
- 0.4%covered by lakes
- 0.2km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 34% Forest
- 17% Cropland
- 21% Pasture
- 2% 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
Struma: what you find on the way
- 13Weirs
- 3Waterfalls
- 1Canoe put-ins
- 1River beaches
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Struma 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
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
17mountains at the sourcePeakyas
2islands off the mouthIslandyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Polska skakavitsakm 7450m
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Studena Reservoirkm 00.8km²
- Pchelina Reservoirkm 544.4km²
- Lake Kerkinikm 27253km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (17)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Vitosha2.6 km away · prominence 1,275 m2,292m
- Cherni Vrah2.6 km away2,290m
- Golyam Rezen2.6 km away2,277m
- Malak Rezen2.5 km away2,191m
- Lavcheto3.9 km away2,052m
- Kamen Del7.8 km away1,862m
- Uschite7.2 km away1,901m
- Wladayski Cherni Vrah4.8 km away1,641m
9 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
Islands off the mouth (2)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Kafkanas19 km away
- Eleftheronisos Chalkidikis29 km away
Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
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
Struma in pictures




Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (25)
Also: Dragovištica, Rilska River, Angitis, Sandanska Bistritsa, Lebnitsa, Bistritsa, Pirinska Bistritsa, Dzherman, Melnishka reka, Sovolyanska Bistritsa, Vlahina reka, Treklyano River, Gradevska reka, Eleshnica river, Arkata, Svetlya, Kopriven, Krousovitis, Cheimarros Agion Anargyron, Koupatsianos, Kastrolakkas, Ezovitis, Megalo Rema, Strymoniko
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q204127) · 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, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Islandyas — 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.