Skip to content
riveryas
EN

River

Gera

85 km from source to mouth · Germany.

GermanyGermanyFlows into Unstrut

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouthErfurt
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

85km

Average flow

54m³/s

Basin

1,090km²

Drop

124m

from 271 m to 147 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

85 km of river and 17 stops on the way: 8 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

271 m147 m
Thuringian Forestat 271 m0 km
Zahme Geratributary13 km
Wilde Geratributary13 km
Apfelstädttributary21 km
Walkstromtributary28 km
Erfurt217,159 people28 km
Elxleben2,405 people39 km
Unstrutat 147 m49 km
01020304049 km
  1. 0 kmThuringian Forestat 271 m
  2. 0 kmTalbrücke Wilde Gera
  3. 1 kmPlaue1,995 people
  4. 9 kmArnstadt25,678 people
  5. 13 kmZahme Geratributary
  6. 13 kmWilde Geratributary
  7. 13 kmIchtershausen3,910 people
  8. 15 kmWipfratributary
  9. 18 kmIngersleben1,065 people
  10. 21 kmApfelstädttributary
  11. 22 kmGeratalbrücke Bischleben
  12. 26 kmRoßbrücke
  13. 28 kmWalkstromtributary
  14. 28 kmKrämerbrücke
  15. 28 kmErfurt217,159 people
  16. 39 kmElxleben2,405 people
  17. 41 kmWalschleben1,904 people
  18. 48 kmGebesee2,287 people
  19. 49 kmUnstrutat 147 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

River in Thüringen, Germany

At the mouth it carries 54 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 46 seconds. It drops from 271 m to 147 m, 1.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,090 km², about the size of HK. 230,000 people live in it. Highest water: from June to July; lowest: January. Its dams hold back little of its water (8.1% of a year's flow).

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

Gera, month by month

Highest water: from June to July

Lowest water: January. Best months to visit: from June to September.

2.8
0°26 mmJan
12
0°24 mmFeb
11
4°30 mmMar
10
8°40 mmApr
11
13°52 mmMay
14
16°67 mmJun
13
18°57 mmJul
12
17°55 mmAug
9.3
14°40 mmSep
9.5
9°38 mmOct
11
4°35 mmNov
10
1°29 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 2.8 m³/s in the lowest month to 14 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

Car hire at LEJ airport (Schkeuditz)Discover CarsSee 

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

Gera: the basin in numbers

1,088 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Lightly regulatedReservoirs can hold 8.1% of a year's flow.
  • 230,000people live in the basin
  • 212/km²people per km²
  • 390maverage altitude of the basin
  • 616mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 7.5°Caverage air temperature
  • 26%protected areas
  • 0.4%covered by lakes
  • 0.0km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 26% Forest
  • 40% Cropland
  • 12% Pasture
  • 14% 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

Gera: what you find on the way

  • 3Damswasserwirtschaftl. Anlage / Hochwasserschutz
  • 27WeirsPapierwehr, Moritzwehr, Wehr Nettelbeckufer and 24 more
  • 3Locks
  • 1Boat ramps

From OpenStreetMap, within 1.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Gera 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.

  • 82mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Mountains at the source (82)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Kickelhahn12 km away · prominence 145 m861m
  2. Hohe Warte9.7 km away765m
  3. Pferdeberg15 km away805m
  4. Lindenberg12 km away · prominence 60 m749m
  5. Hirschkopf12 km away772m
  6. Kien-Berg11 km away720m
  7. Arles-Berg9.0 km away651m
  8. Heydaer Berg3.6 km away · prominence 168 m605m

74 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Gera: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Gera: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth10 km across

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

Gera in pictures

Gera bei Andisleben
Michael Sander · CC BY-SA 3.0
Erfurt.Gera Fluss
Vitold Muratov · CC BY-SA 3.0
Arnstadt Gera1
Ilmtaler · CC BY-SA 4.0
Erfurt-Marienthal-Apfelstädtmündung-in-die-Gera-1
CTHOE · CC BY-SA 3.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

It flows into

UnstrutGermanyGermany192 km4.6 m³/s

Tributaries (7)

Also: Apfelstädt, Zahme Gera, Wipfra, Wilde Gera, Lütsche, Reichenbach, Walkstrom

In the same basin

VltavaCzechiaCzechia430 km150 m³/sSpreeGermanyGermany382 km36 m³/sHavelGermanyGermany325 km89 m³/sSaaleGermanyGermany413 km120 m³/sOhřeCzechiaCzechia247 km38 m³/sMuldeGermanyGermany147 km65 m³/sWeisse ElsterGermanyGermany257 km100 m³/sOtavaCzechiaCzechia112 km26 m³/sSázavaCzechiaCzechia226 km25 m³/sEldeGermanyGermany208 km11 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Weisse ElsterGermanyGermany257 km100 m³/s77 km awayFuldaGermanyGermany218 km67 m³/s95 km awayWerraGermanyGermany292 km51 m³/s95 km awaySaaleGermanyGermany413 km120 m³/s117 km awayEderGermanyGermany177 km24 m³/s103 km awayMuldeGermanyGermany147 km65 m³/s122 km awayRegnitzGermanyGermany59 km51 m³/s130 km awayBlack ElsterGermanyGermany179 km350 m³/s153 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q706112) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesPeakyas — 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.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit