River
Cross River
489 km from source to mouth · Nigeria and Cameroon.
Nigeria and CameroonFlows into Gulf of Guinea7th longest in Nigeria
In numbers
Length
489km
Average flow
170m³/s
Basin
54,000km²
Drop
56m
from 57 m to 1 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
489 km of river and 10 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmCameroonat 57 m
- 0 kmManyu Rivertributary
- 64 kmAgbokim Waterfalls
- 83 kmCross River Bridge
- 130 kmIkom79,103 people
- 217 kmObubra12,885 people
- 301 kmEhoma Lake1.7 km²
- 314 kmEgwebe Lake0.9 km²
- 320 kmEbean Lake0.6 km²
- 410 kmItu36,358 people
- 486 kmEsuk Oron112,033 people
- 489 kmGulf of Guineaat 1 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in southeastern Nigeria
At the mouth it carries 170 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 15 seconds. It drops from 57 m to 1 m, 0.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 54,000 km², about the size of HR. 11.0 million people live in it. Highest water: from July to October; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Esuk OronLargest city on its banks · 112,033 people
- Akwa Ibom International Airport (QUO)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 19 km from the cityCar hire in Port HarcourtDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water10 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Cross River, month by month
Highest water: from July to October
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from December to January.
From about 410 m³/s in the lowest month to 5,400 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
Cross River: the basin in numbers
52,696 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 11.0millionpeople live in the basin
- 210/km²people per km²
- 215maverage altitude of the basin
- 2,100mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 26.3°Caverage air temperature
- 14%protected areas
- 0.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 54% Forest
- 34% Cropland
- 3% Pasture
- 5% 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
Cross River: what you find on the way
- 1WaterfallsAgbokim Waterfalls
- 10Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Cross 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.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Agbokim Waterfallskm 53
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Ehoma Lakekm 2481.7km²
- Egwebe Lakekm 2580.9km²
- Ebean Lakekm 2630.6km²
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
Cross River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (3)
Also: Calabar River, Manyu River, Great Kwa River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Nigeria4,180 km8,600 m³/s207 km awaySanagaCameroon918 km2,100 m³/s210 km awayWouri RiverCameroon160 km620 m³/s180 km awayNyong RiverCameroon640 km450 m³/s252 km awayBenue RiverNigeria1,370 km3,200 m³/s368 km awayCampo River
Equatorial Guinea460 km720 m³/s325 km awayMbam RiverCameroon425 km710 m³/s338 km awayBenito RiverEquatorial Guinea365 km510 m³/s393 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1141201) · 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 | Cascadyas, 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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Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit