River
Ariège
163 km from source to mouth · France.
FranceFlows into Garonne
In numbers
Length
163km
Average flow
76m³/s
Basin
4,135km²
Drop
944m
from 1,091 m to 147 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
163 km of river and 30 stops on the way: 22 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmPortaat 1,091 m
- 17 kmAx-les-Thermes1,510 people
- 50 kmVicdessostributary
- 50 kmTarascon-sur-Ariège3,644 people
- 52 kmCourbièretributary
- 52 kmSaurattributary
- 56 kmMercus-Garrabet1,056 people
- 61 kmSaint-Paul-de-Jarrat1,302 people
- 64 kmMontgaillard1,412 people
- 70 kmFoix9,934 people
- 71 kmSiostributary
- 71 kmArget (Ariège)tributary
- 83 kmVarilhes2,892 people
- 88 kmVerniolle2,140 people
- 89 kmSaint-Jean-du-Falga2,418 people
- 94 kmPamiers16,997 people
- 113 kmCrieutributary
- 113 kmSaverdun3,901 people
- 126 kmHers-Viftributary
- 127 kmCintegabelle2,516 people
- 136 kmAuterive7,369 people
- 149 kmVernet2,162 people
- 150 kmVenerque2,633 people
- 153 kmLabarthe-sur-Lèze5,208 people
- 153 kmLèzetributary
- 159 kmRoquettes3,714 people
- 160 kmLacroix-Falgarde1,678 people
- 160 kmRoques5,436 people
- 161 kmPinsaguel2,609 people
- 163 kmVieille-Toulouse1,020 people
- 163 kmPortet-sur-Garonne9,794 people
- 163 kmGaronneat 147 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in southern France, right tributary of the Garonne
At the mouth it carries 76 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 33 seconds. It drops from 1,091 m to 147 m, 5.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 4,135 km², about the size of CV. 384,000 people live in it. Highest water: from December to February and May. Its dams hold back little of its water (5.1% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- PamiersLargest city on its banks · 16,997 people
- Carcassonne Salvaza Airport (CCF)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 58 km from the cityCar hire at CCF airport (Carcassonne)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water4 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Ariège, month by month
Highest water: from December to February and May
Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 27 m³/s in the lowest month to 230 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
Ariège: the basin in numbers
9,859 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 384,000people live in the basin
- 39/km²people per km²
- 906maverage altitude of the basin
- 944mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 9.4°Caverage air temperature
- 32%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 0.2km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 59% Forest
- 22% Cropland
- 18% 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
Ariège: what you find on the way
- 21Weirs
- 4Locks
- 9WaterfallsCascade de Bésines, Cascade des Escaliers and 7 more
- 1Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Ariège 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.
129mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (129)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Pic de la Portelleta8.8 km away · prominence 389 m2,905m
- Puigpedrós4.0 km away · prominence 644 m2,915m
- Pic de la Colilla11 km away · prominence 83 m2,836m
- Alt del Griu7.3 km away · prominence 360 m2,874m
- Montmalús4.5 km away · prominence 80 m2,781m
- Pic Negre d'Envalira1.5 km away2,822m
- Pic de Setut9.4 km away2,867m
- Pic Alt del Cubil5.7 km away2,833m
121 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
Ariège in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
GaronneFrance647 km660 m³/sTributaries (16)
Also: Hers-Vif, Lèze, Vicdessos, Aston, Arget (Ariège), Crieu, Courbière, Oriège, Mouillonne, Saurat, Sios, Aïse, Aure, Estrique, Galage, Jade
Nearby
Rivers nearby
SpainWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q18451) · 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 
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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