River
Sutlej
1,500 km from source to mouth · Pakistan, China and India.
Pakistan, China and IndiaFlows into Panjnad River3rd longest in Pakistan
In numbers
Length
1,500km
Average flow
1,300m³/s
Basin
395,000km²
Drop
4,467m
from 4,567 m to 100 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
1,500 km of river and 17 stops on the way: 9 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmLake Rakshastalat 4,567 m
- 6 kmLake Rakshastal261 km²
- 324 kmSpiti Rivertributary
- 394 kmBaspa Rivertributary
- 416 kmNathpa Jhakri Dam
- 589 kmBilaspur14,037 people
- 635 kmGobind Sagar92 km²
- 644 kmMehatpur Basdehra9,218 people
- 645 kmNangal48,497 people
- 702 kmRopar Headworks
- 702 kmRupnagar61,314 people
- 703 kmRopar56,038 people
- 703 kmRupnagar district684,627 people
- 773 kmLudhiana1,618,879 people
- 777 kmPhillaur24,688 people
- 875 kmBeas Rivertributary
- 1,194 kmIslam Barrage
- 1,317 kmBahawalpur762,111 people
- 1,500 kmPanjnad Riverat 100 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in China, India and Pakistan
At the mouth it carries 1,322 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.9 seconds. It drops from 4,567 m to 100 m, 3.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 395,000 km², about the size of ZW. 38.5 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to October; lowest: from December to January and from May to June. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (44% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- LudhianaLargest city on its banks · 1,618,879 people
- Halwara International Airport (HWR)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 27 km from the cityCar hire at IXC airport (Chandigarh)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From March to May and from October to NovemberThe best months to visit
Sutlej, month by month
Highest water: from August to October
Lowest water: from December to January and from May to June. Best months to visit: from March to May and from October to November.
From about 230 m³/s in the lowest month to 3,600 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
Sutlej: the basin in numbers
125,286 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 38.5millionpeople live in the basin
- 308/km²people per km²
- 2,164maverage altitude of the basin
- 655mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 13.3°Caverage air temperature
- 9%protected areas
- 0.8%covered by lakes
- 2%glaciers
- 14%permafrost
- 18km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 8% Forest
- 39% Cropland
- 14% Pasture
- 10% Towns and cities
- 2% Ice
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
Sutlej: what you find on the way
- 2Waterfalls
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Sutlej 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.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Rakshastalkm 6261km²
- Gobind Sagarkm 63292km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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
Sutlej in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
AfghanistanWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q171675) · 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 | Lakeyas — 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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