Stream
Gilgit River
263 km from source to mouth · Pakistan.
PakistanFlows into Indus River8th longest in Pakistan
In numbers
Length
263km
Average flow
1,000m³/s
Basin
26,000km²
Drop
2,548m
from 3,784 m to 1,236 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
263 km of river and 6 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 3,784 m
- 142 kmGahkuch10,000 people
- 146 kmKanchey Bridge
- 210 kmGilgit261,440 people
- 215 kmDanyor25,000 people
- 215 kmHunza Rivertributary
- 260 kmJaglot27,000 people
- 263 kmIndus Riverat 1,236 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Pakistan
At the mouth it carries 1,036 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 2.4 seconds. It drops from 3,784 m to 1,236 m, 9.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 26,000 km², about the size of RW. 919,000 people live in it. Highest water: from April to June; lowest: from November to February. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- GilgitLargest city on its banks · 261,440 people
- Gilgit Airport (GIL)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 2 km from the cityCar hire in IslamabadDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Gilgit River, month by month
Highest water: from April to June
Lowest water: from November to February. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): January. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 120 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,900 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
Gilgit River: the basin in numbers
171,912 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 919,000people live in the basin
- 6/km²people per km²
- 4,756maverage altitude of the basin
- 160mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -3.6°Caverage air temperature
- 14%protected areas
- 0.5%covered by lakes
- 10%glaciers
- 52%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 1% Forest
- 5% Pasture
- 10% Ice
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
Gilgit River: what you find on the way
- 3WaterfallsBeautiful stream
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Gilgit 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.
8mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (8)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Ambezno Zhang11 km away
- Ambezh5.8 km away
- Dadalbho10 km away
- Shawārang6.9 km away
- Shaghich7.6 km away
- Chotak5.4 km away
- Jaharoli3.8 km away
- Ghandaro Tek12 km away
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
Gilgit River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Indus RiverPakistan3,180 km6,600 m³/sTributaries (2)
Also: Hunza River, Karambar River
IndiaNearby
Rivers nearby
Pakistan550 km130 m³/s126 km awayPamir River
Afghanistan118 km13 m³/s232 km awayWakhan RiverAfghanistan220 km16 m³/s232 km awayKabul RiverPakistan460 km1,200 m³/s296 km awayGunt River
Tajikistan296 km100 m³/s344 km awayBartang RiverTajikistan528 km130 m³/s371 km awayKunar RiverAfghanistan480 km370 m³/s400 km awayKokcha RiverAfghanistan360 km180 m³/s498 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q965543) · 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.
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Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
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islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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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