River
Emba River
712 km from source to mouth · Kazakhstan.
KazakhstanFlows into Caspian Sea9th longest in Kazakhstan
In numbers
Length
712km
Average flow
18m³/s
Basin
40,400km²
Drop
341m
from 312 m to -29 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
712 km of river and 1 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 312 m
- 69 kmEmbi18,760 people
- 712 kmCaspian Seaat -29 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Kazakhstan
At the mouth it carries 18 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 143 seconds. It drops from 312 m to -29 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 40,400 km², about the size of CH. 114,000 people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: April; lowest: from January to March and August. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- EmbiLargest city on its banks · 18,760 people
- Aktobe International Airport (AKX)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 172 km from the cityCar hire at NQZ airport (Astana)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Emba River, month by month
Highest water: April
Lowest water: from January to March and August. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 0.8 m³/s in the lowest month to 410 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
Emba River: the basin in numbers
69,264 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 114,000people live in the basin
- 2/km²people per km²
- 142maverage altitude of the basin
- 211mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 6.9°Caverage air temperature
- 1.3%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 90% 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
Emba River: what you find on the way
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
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
Emba River in pictures
RussiaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q517670) · 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 |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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