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River

Tigris

1,850 km from source to mouth · Iraq, Turkey and Syria.

IraqTurkeySyriaIraq, Turkey and SyriaFlows into Shatt al-Arab2nd longest in Iraq

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouthBaghdadAl Mawşil al Jadīdah
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

1,850km

Average flow

1,000m³/s

Basin

375,000km²

Drop

1,236m

from 1,238 m to 2 m

Countries

3

The journey

From source to mouth

1,850 km of river and 50 stops on the way: 22 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

1,238 m2 m
Lake Hazarat 1,238 m0 km
Diyarbakır1,833,684 people129 km
Al Mawşil al Jadīdah2,065,597 people589 km
Mosul1,792,000 people590 km
Al-'Alam25,662 people829 km
Tikrīt42,477 people839 km
Baghdad8,126,755 people1,072 km
Ctesiphon500,000 people1,115 km
Al-Kut315,162 people1,363 km
Al ‘Amārah323,302 people1,590 km
Shatt al-Arabat 2 m1,850 km
05001,0001,5001,850 km
  1. 0 kmLake Hazarat 1,238 m
  2. 1 kmLake Hazar77 km²
  3. 129 kmDiyarbakır1,833,684 people
  4. 134 kmDicle Bridge
  5. 178 kmBismil74,493 people
  6. 217 kmBatman Brooktributary
  7. 264 kmOld Bridge, Hasankeyf
  8. 302 kmBotan Rivertributary
  9. 383 kmCizre134,041 people
  10. 391 kmCizre Bridge
  11. 420 kmKhaburtributary
  12. 525 kmMosul Reservoir347 km²
  13. 589 kmBash Tapia Castle
  14. 589 kmFifth Bridge
  15. 589 kmAl Mawşil al Jadīdah2,065,597 people
  16. 590 kmMosul1,792,000 people
  17. 591 kmKhosr Rivertributary
  18. 643 kmGreat Zabtributary
  19. 706 kmAsh Sharqāt160,000 people
  20. 715 kmAssurUNESCO World Heritage
  21. 746 kmAlZwya15,000 people
  22. 750 kmLittle Zabtributary
  23. 796 kmBayjī173,677 people
  24. 829 kmAl-'Alam25,662 people
  25. 839 kmTikrīt42,477 people
  26. 892 kmBuḩayrat an Nāşirīyah0.3 km²
  27. 893 kmSāmarrā’158,508 people
  28. 1,055 kmAl-Quriaat Bridge
  29. 1,056 kmSaba Abkar57,000 people
  30. 1,058 kmAl-Aaimmah bridge
  31. 1,060 km14th Ramadan Bridge
  32. 1,062 kmAl-Sarafiya bridge
  33. 1,064 kmBab al-Mudham bridge
  34. 1,065 kmMartyrs Bridge
  35. 1,066 kmSinak Bridge
  36. 1,067 kmRepublic Bridge
  37. 1,071 km14th of July Bridge
  38. 1,072 kmBaghdad8,126,755 people
  39. 1,074 kmJadriya Bridge
  40. 1,084 kmDora Bridge
  41. 1,095 kmDiyala Rivertributary
  42. 1,098 kmSirwan Rivertributary
  43. 1,115 kmCtesiphon500,000 people
  44. 1,172 kmAş Şuwayrah77,200 people
  45. 1,210 kmAl ‘Azīzīyah44,751 people
  46. 1,290 kmAn Nu‘mānīyah110,000 people
  47. 1,363 kmAl-Kut315,162 people
  48. 1,470 km‘Alī al Gharbī19,711 people
  49. 1,590 kmAl ‘Amārah323,302 people
  50. 1,633 kmQal‘at Şāliḩ39,698 people
  51. 1,703 kmAl Qurnah134,174 people
  52. 1,850 kmShatt al-Arabat 2 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

River flowing from Turkey through Iraq and Syria

At the mouth it carries 1,014 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 2.5 seconds. It drops from 1,238 m to 2 m, 0.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 375,000 km², about the size of JP. 23.2 million people live in it. Highest water: from February to March; lowest: from July to October. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 56% of a year's flow.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • BaghdadLargest city on its banks · 8,126,755 people
  • Baghdad International Airport / New Al Muthana Air Base (BGW)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 14 km from the city
  • On the water20 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From March to May and from October to NovemberThe best months to visit

Tigris, month by month

Highest water: from February to March

Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from March to May and from October to November.

2,900
8°53 mmJan
3,700
10°51 mmFeb
3,900
14°52 mmMar
3,300
20°43 mmApr
2,300
26°19 mmMay
1,300
30°1 mmJun
610
34°0 mmJul
230
33°0 mmAug
170
29°1 mmSep
220
23°12 mmOct
730
16°36 mmNov
1,800
10°53 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 170 m³/s in the lowest month to 3,900 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

Car hire in IraqDiscover CarsSee 

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

Tigris: the basin in numbers

221,327 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

DammedReservoirs can hold 56% of a year's flow: much of the river is a chain of lakes.
  • 23.2millionpeople live in the basin
  • 106/km²people per km²
  • 787maverage altitude of the basin
  • 487mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 17.6°Caverage air temperature
  • 0.7%covered by lakes
  • 27km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 1% Forest
  • 26% Cropland
  • 19% Pasture
  • 3% 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

Tigris: what you find on the way

  • 24DamsKralkızı Dam, Dicle Dam, Illisu Dam and 21 more
  • 4WeirsSu Bendi and 3 more
  • 3LocksNazim al Kassarah
  • 3WaterfallsŞelale, stone bridge
  • 2Boat ramps
  • 16Ferry piersFeribot İskelesi, Balıkçılar Limanı, Kale Limanı and 13 more
  • 2Marinas
  • 1River beachesplaj

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Tigris 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.

  • 3lakes on its wayLakeyas
  • 4mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Lakes and reservoirs (3)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Lake Hazarkm 1 · 213 m deep77km²
  2. Mosul Reservoirkm 532347km²
  3. Buḩayrat an Nāşirīyahkm 9040.3km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Mountains at the source (4)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Mihrap Dağı13 km away
  2. Mastar Dağı12 km away
  3. Haşdu Dağı13 km away
  4. Yaylım Dağı13 km away

Open Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Tigris: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Tigris: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth64 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

Tigris in pictures

The Old Bridge and The Tigris River-Mosul 01
Abdulsalam Al Dabbagh · CC BY-SA 4.0
Haifa street, as seen from the medical city hospital across the tigres
Original uploader was Zzztriple2000 at en.wikipedia · Public domain
The Old Bridge and The Tigris River-Mosul 02
Abdulsalam Al Dabbagh · CC BY-SA 4.0
A picture of the bank of the Tigris River from the city of Mosul
Hamza Al Mosuly · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

It flows into

Shatt al-ArabIraqIraq200 km1,500 m³/s

Tributaries (15)

Karkheh RiverIranIran870 km220 m³/sGreat ZabIraqIraq473 km810 m³/sjoins at km 651Little ZabIraqIraq456 km220 m³/sjoins at km 760Diyala RiverIraqIraq231 km130 m³/sjoins at km 1,110KhaburTurkeyTurkey194 km150 m³/sjoins at km 425

Also: Batman Brook, Botan River, Khosr River, 'Adhaim, Sirwan River, Khasa River, Glory River, Bitlis Çayı, Godar Khosh River, Doiraj River

In the same basin

EuphratesIraqIraq2,800 km820 m³/sKarun RiverIranIran950 km580 m³/sKhabur RiverSyriaSyria486 km70 m³/sMurat RiverTurkeyTurkey722 km400 m³/sBalikh RiverSyriaSyria100 km15 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

EuphratesIraqIraq2,800 km820 m³/s0 km awayKarun RiverIranIran950 km580 m³/s95 km awayKarkheh RiverIranIran870 km220 m³/s71 km awayDiyala RiverIraqIraq231 km130 m³/s370 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q35591) · 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 atlasesLakeyas, 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?

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