River
Charyn River
427 km from source to mouth · Kazakhstan.
KazakhstanFlows into Ili River
In numbers
Length
427km
Average flow
35m³/s
Basin
7,720km²
Drop
2,054m
from 2,554 m to 500 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
427 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmKetpenat 2,554 m
- 75 kmTuzkol, Raiymbek District7.8 km²
- 175 kmKegen9,993 people
- 211 kmKarkyratributary
- 326 kmTemirliktributary
- 412 kmWooden Lake0.5 km²
- 427 kmIli Riverat 500 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Kazakhstan, tributary to the Ili and famed for its canyons
At the mouth it carries 35 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 71 seconds. It drops from 2,554 m to 500 m, 4.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 7,720 km², about the size of PR. 60,000 people live in it. Highest water: from April to June; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- KegenLargest city on its banks · 9,993 people
- Karakol International Airport (IKG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 87 km from the cityCar hire at ALA airport (Almaty)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Charyn River, month by month
Highest water: from April to June
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 2.7 m³/s in the lowest month to 140 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
Charyn River: the basin in numbers
8,219 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 60,000people live in the basin
- 7/km²people per km²
- 2,201maverage altitude of the basin
- 418mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 2.2°Caverage air temperature
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 8%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 4% Forest
- 9% Cropland
- 57% 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
Charyn River: what you find on the way
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Charyn River 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
- Tuzkol, Raiymbek Districtkm 547.8km²
- Wooden Lakekm 2960.5km²
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
Charyn River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Ili RiverKazakhstan1,439 km480 m³/sTributaries (2)
Also: Karkyra, Temirlik
In the same basin
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Kazakhstan245 km32 m³/s0 km awayAksu RiverKazakhstan316 km11 m³/s285 km awayLepsy RiverKazakhstan417 km19 m³/s290 km awayAyaguz RiverKazakhstan492 km8.8 m³/s305 km awayKaratal RiverKazakhstan390 km67 m³/s336 km awayChong-Kemin River
Kyrgyzstan116 km22 m³/s316 km awayYarkand River
China858 km170 m³/s403 km awayHotan RiverChina1,035 km140 m³/s403 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2995415) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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mountains
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
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit