River
Falémé River
400 km from source to mouth · 4 countries.
Mauritania, Guinea, Senegal and MaliFlows into Senegal River2nd longest in Mauritania
In numbers
Length
400km
Average flow
480m³/s
Basin
28,900km²
Drop
224m
from 242 m to 18 m
Countries
4
The journey
From source to mouth
400 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 242 m
- 353 kmKidira Bridge
- 353 kmKidira13,551 people
- 388 kmDiogountourou6,226 people
- 400 kmSenegal Riverat 18 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River
At the mouth it carries 482 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 5.2 seconds. It drops from 242 m to 18 m, 0.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 28,900 km², about the size of AL. 4.4 million people live in it. Highest water: September; lowest: from February to May. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 74% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- KidiraLargest city on its banks · 13,551 people
- Kayes Dag Dag Airport (KYS)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 88 km from the cityCar hire at NKC airport (Nouakchott)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water37 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Falémé River, month by month
Highest water: September
Lowest water: from February to May. Best months to visit: from December to January.
From about 30 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,600 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
Falémé River: the basin in numbers
327,784 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 4.4millionpeople live in the basin
- 13/km²people per km²
- 277maverage altitude of the basin
- 638mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 28.0°Caverage air temperature
- 2%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 11km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 5% Forest
- 6% Cropland
- 34% 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
Falémé River: what you find on the way
- 37Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Falémé 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.
12mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (12)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Bowal Lessenkoun5.3 km away
- Nialakaya15 km away
- Bowal Ourouol9.0 km away
- Powal Gokikolo8.4 km away
- Sambaya Dimbereya13 km away
- Fello Sankaran12 km away
- Fello Simbanabou12 km away
- Bowal Sourou10 km away
4 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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
Falémé River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Senegal RiverSenegal1,050 km640 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
Mauritania697 km24 km awayBakoy RiverMali400 km370 m³/s188 km awayBafing RiverMali500 km370 m³/s188 km awayGorgol RiverMauritania258 km66 m³/s200 km awayGambia River
Gambia1,130 km2,000 m³/s443 km awayGeba River
Guinea-Bissau545 km130 m³/s429 km awayCorubal RiverGuinea-Bissau560 km300 m³/s439 km awayRio de CanjambariGuinea-Bissau69 km26 m³/s409 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q995969) · 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 | Peakyas — 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.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 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