River
Demerara River
350 km from source to mouth · Guyana.
GuyanaFlows into Atlantic Ocean5th longest in Guyana
In numbers
Length
350km
Average flow
290m³/s
Basin
6,000km²
Drop
99m
from 99 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
350 km of river and 9 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 99 m
- 20 kmCanister Falls
- 73 kmSimirie Falls
- 79 kmWappu Falls
- 94 kmYarura Falls
- 105 kmGreat Falls
- 191 kmHaianari Creektributary
- 234 kmLinden28,674 people
- 345 kmDemerara Harbour Bridge
- 347 kmGeorgetown235,017 people
- 350 kmAtlantic Oceanat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Guyana
At the mouth it carries 289 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 8.6 seconds. It drops from 99 m to 0 m, 0.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 6,000 km², about the size of PS. 94,000 people live in it. Highest water: from June to August; lowest: November. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- GeorgetownLargest city on its banks · 235,017 people
- Eugene F. Correia International Airport (OGL)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 5 km from the cityCar hire at OGL airport (Ogle)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water3 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From February to March and OctoberThe best months to visit
Demerara River, month by month
Highest water: from June to August
Lowest water: November. Best months to visit: from February to March and October.
From about 200 m³/s in the lowest month to 490 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
Demerara River: the basin in numbers
7,446 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 94,000people live in the basin
- 14/km²people per km²
- 82maverage altitude of the basin
- 2,425mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 26.3°Caverage air temperature
What covers the basin
- 87% Forest
- 6% Cropland
- 7% Pasture
- 1% 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
Demerara River: what you find on the way
- 2Boat ramps
- 1Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Demerara 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.
5waterfalls on the riverCascadyas
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
1island off the mouthIslandyas
Waterfalls (5)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Canister Fallskm 18
- Simirie Fallskm 68
- Wappu Fallskm 73
- Yarura Fallskm 88
- Great Fallskm 98
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Tabru Mountain3.2 km away
Islands off the mouth (1)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Leguan Island29 km away64km²
Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
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
Demerara River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (4)
Also: Haianari Creek, Haiakwa Creek, Haiama River, Kuruabaru River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Guyana1,014 km2,100 m³/s59 km awayCuyuni RiverGuyana618 km2,100 m³/s63 km awayBerbice RiverGuyana595 km370 m³/s93 km awayCourantyne RiverGuyana724 km580 m³/s160 km awayOrinoco River
Venezuela2,140 km30,000 m³/s367 km awayCoppename River
Suriname400 km550 m³/s272 km awaySaramacca RiverSuriname255 km280 m³/s272 km awaySuriname RiverSuriname480 km440 m³/s356 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1185369) · 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 | Cascadyas, Peakyas, Islandyas — 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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