River
Big Uzen
650 km from source to mouth · Kazakhstan and Russia.
Kazakhstan and RussiaFlows into Kamys-Samar Lakes
In numbers
Length
650km
Average flow
34m³/s
Basin
14,300km²
Drop
98m
from 89 m to -9 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
650 km of river and 8 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmObshchy Syrtat 89 m
- 82 kmPrud Novyy0.3 km²
- 102 kmAltatatributary
- 153 kmPrud Solyanochnyy1.5 km²
- 195 kmPrud Solyanka0.5 km²
- 259 kmChertanlatributary
- 259 kmNovouzensk16,932 people
- 345 kmAleksandrov Gay9,919 people
- 539 kmLake Saryshyganak19 km²
- 650 kmKamys-Samar Lakesat -9 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Russia and Kazakhstan
At the mouth it carries 34 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 73 seconds. It drops from 89 m to -9 m, 0.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 14,300 km², about the size of ME. 141,000 people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: April; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- NovouzenskLargest city on its banks · 16,932 people
- Balakovo Airport (BWO)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 158 km from the cityCar hire at NQZ airport (Astana)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Big Uzen, month by month
Highest water: April
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to March. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 4.0 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
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The basin
Big Uzen: the basin in numbers
33,490 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 141,000people live in the basin
- 4/km²people per km²
- 34maverage altitude of the basin
- 311mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 6.2°Caverage air temperature
- 2.7%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 27% Cropland
- 44% 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
Big Uzen: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
- 1Locks
- 1River beaches
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Big Uzen 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.
4lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (4)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Prud Novyykm 630.3km²
- Prud Solyanochnyykm 1181.5km²
- Prud Solyankakm 1510.5km²
- Lake Saryshyganakkm 41619km²
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
Big Uzen in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (4)
Also: Altata, Tavolozhka, Chertanla, Ilyinka
In the same basin
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Kazakhstan638 km8.5 m³/s24 km awayUral RiverKazakhstan2,428 km400 m³/s256 km awayUil RiverKazakhstan800 km2.0 m³/s185 km awayShaganKazakhstan264 km7.7 m³/s268 km awayEmba RiverKazakhstan712 km18 m³/s317 km awayVolgaRussia3,530 km8,100 m³/s409 km awaySamaraRussia594 km50 m³/s472 km awaySakmaraRussia798 km140 m³/s477 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1514184) · 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
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