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River

Struma

415 km from source to mouth · Greece and Bulgaria.

GreeceBulgariaGreece and BulgariaFlows into Strymonian gulf1st longest in Greece

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouth
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

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.

728 m-1 m
Vitoshaat 728 m0 km
Pchelina Reservoir4.4 km²63 km
Polska skakavitsa50 m86 km
Dzhermantributary148 km
Blagoevgrad64,171 people164 km
Lebnitsatributary235 km
Sandanska Bistritsatributary236 km
Lake Kerkini53 km²317 km
Strymonian gulfat -1 m415 km
0100200300415 km
  1. 0 kmVitoshaat 728 m
  2. 0 kmStudena Reservoir0.8 km²
  3. 21 kmPernik82,467 people
  4. 39 kmRadomir14,494 people
  5. 60 kmArkatatributary
  6. 63 kmPchelina Reservoir4.4 km²
  7. 86 kmTreklyano Rivertributary
  8. 86 kmPolska skakavitsa50 m
  9. 94 kmDragovišticatributary
  10. 103 kmSovolyanska Bistritsatributary
  11. 139 kmChurch of Saint Theodore, Boboshevo
  12. 148 kmDzhermantributary
  13. 154 kmRilska Rivertributary
  14. 164 kmBlagoevgrad64,171 people
  15. 170 kmBistritsatributary
  16. 183 kmSimitli6,729 people
  17. 194 kmStara Kresna3,586 people
  18. 205 kmKresna4,117 people
  19. 235 kmLebnitsatributary
  20. 236 kmSandanska Bistritsatributary
  21. 248 kmStrumicatributary
  22. 263 kmPirinska Bistritsatributary
  23. 275 kmOld railway bridge of Strymon
  24. 317 kmLake Kerkini53 km²
  25. 392 kmAngitistributary
  26. 411 kmEion
  27. 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).

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

Struma, month by month

Highest water: from December to January

Lowest water: from August to September. Best months to visit: from June to October.

220
2°40 mmJan
180
4°36 mmFeb
150
8°39 mmMar
120
12°39 mmApr
120
17°52 mmMay
100
21°45 mmJun
81
23°35 mmJul
50
23°29 mmAug
39
20°28 mmSep
66
14°39 mmOct
150
8°57 mmNov
210
4°51 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

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.

Lightly regulatedReservoirs can hold 5.1% of a year's flow.
  • 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

  • 8Dams
  • 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

  1. Polska skakavitsakm 7450m

Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗

Lakes and reservoirs (3)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Studena Reservoirkm 00.8km²
  2. Pchelina Reservoirkm 544.4km²
  3. Lake Kerkinikm 27253km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Mountains at the source (17)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Vitosha2.6 km away · prominence 1,275 m2,292m
  2. Cherni Vrah2.6 km away2,290m
  3. Golyam Rezen2.6 km away2,277m
  4. Malak Rezen2.5 km away2,191m
  5. Lavcheto3.9 km away2,052m
  6. Kamen Del7.8 km away1,862m
  7. Uschite7.2 km away1,901m
  8. 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

  1. Kafkanas19 km away
  2. Eleftheronisos Chalkidikis29 km away

Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Struma: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Struma: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth18 km across

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

Struma at Blagoevgrad kz01
Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz · CC BY-SA 4.0
Struma river mouth
Gmihail at Serbian Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 rs
Strymonriver
GreatBernard · CC0
Struma Glacier
Lyubomir Ivanov · CC BY-SA 3.0

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

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q204127) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesCascadyas, 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.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit