River
Veleka
147 km from source to mouth · Bulgaria and Turkey.
Bulgaria and TurkeyFlows into Black Sea6th longest in Bulgaria
In numbers
Length
147km
Average flow
5.0m³/s
Basin
955km²
Drop
368m
from 370 m to 2 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
147 km of river and 0 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmStrandzhaat 370 m
- 147 kmBlack Seaat 2 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Turkey and in Bulgaria
At the mouth it carries 5.0 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 505 seconds. It drops from 370 m to 2 m, 2.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 955 km², about the size of HK. 13,000 people live in it. Highest water: from December to January; lowest: from June to September. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- AhtopolLargest city on its banks · 1,107 people
- Burgas Airport (BOJ)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 63 km from the cityCar hire at BOJ airport (Burgas)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Veleka, month by month
Highest water: from December to January
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 1.4 m³/s in the lowest month to 9.4 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
Veleka: the basin in numbers
1,073 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 13,000people live in the basin
- 12/km²people per km²
- 328maverage altitude of the basin
- 632mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 12.0°Caverage air temperature
- 74%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 91% Forest
- 5% Cropland
- 41% Pasture
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
Veleka: what you find on the way
- 2Waterfalls
- 1Boat ramps
- 2River beachesButamyata beach
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Veleka 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.
14mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (14)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Kervansaray13 km away632m
- Ravnatabuka5.8 km away586m
- Gora Topkoru7.8 km away453m
- Gora Kazarmata12 km away382m
- Osman Bair14 km away244m
- Kartal Tepe14 km away
- Tarak Hill7.6 km away
- Çavuş Hill10 km away
6 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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
Veleka in pictures
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Turkey112 km5.9 m³/s11 km awayTundzhaTurkey283 km180 m³/s125 km awayKamchiyaBulgaria244 km32 m³/s106 km awayArdaTurkey290 km38 m³/s130 km awayMaritsaTurkey490 km200 m³/s218 km awayErgeneTurkey283 km64 m³/s177 km awaySimav BrookTurkey321 km79 m³/s192 km awaySakarya RiverTurkey824 km240 m³/s246 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2455311) · 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 | 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.
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Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit