River
Iskar
368 km from source to mouth · Bulgaria.
BulgariaFlows into Danube1st longest in Bulgaria
In numbers
Length
368km
Average flow
54m³/s
Basin
8,650km²
Drop
1,083m
from 1,107 m to 24 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
368 km of river and 18 stops on the way: 7 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmCherni Iskarat 1,107 m
- 17 kmSamokov26,765 people
- 31 kmPalakariatributary
- 45 kmIskar Reservoir24 km²
- 72 kmLake Pancharevo0.6 km²
- 95 kmSofia1,213,134 people
- 101 kmPerlovskatributary
- 105 kmLesnovska Rivertributary
- 107 kmBlato Rivertributary
- 124 kmBatuliyska Rivertributary
- 136 kmSvoge8,964 people
- 142 kmTserovo Waterfall19 m
- 202 kmMezdra11,975 people
- 231 kmRoman3,571 people
- 232 kmMalki Iskartributary
- 271 kmCherven Bryag13,000 people
- 272 kmZlatna Panegatributary
- 308 kmIskar4,329 people
- 328 kmGostilatributary
- 368 kmDanubeat 24 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Bulgaria
At the mouth it carries 54 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 46 seconds. It drops from 1,107 m to 24 m, 2.9 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 8,650 km², about the size of PR. 1.5 million people live in it. Highest water: February, April and June. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (43% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- SofiaLargest city on its banks · 1,213,134 people
- Sofia Airport (SOF)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 8 km from the cityCar hire at SOF airport (Sofia)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water3 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Iskar, month by month
Highest water: February, April and June
Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 22 m³/s in the lowest month to 120 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
Iskar: the basin in numbers
8,511 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.5millionpeople live in the basin
- 183/km²people per km²
- 670maverage altitude of the basin
- 632mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 9.2°Caverage air temperature
- 11%protected areas
- 0.4%covered by lakes
- 0.7km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 39% Forest
- 25% Cropland
- 22% Pasture
- 6% 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
Iskar: what you find on the way
- 61Weirs
- 17WaterfallsBov waterfall (right), Bov waterfall (left), Petrenitsa and 14 more
- 2Boat ramps
- 1Marinas
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Iskar 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.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
14mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Tserovo Waterfallkm 11119m
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Iskar Reservoirkm 35 · 75 m deep24km²
- Lake Pancharevokm 560.6km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (14)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Malyovitsa3.6 km away2,729m
- Rilets14 km away2,713m
- Damga1.3 km away2,669m
- Zlia Zab4.9 km away2,678m
- Otovishki Vrah3.0 km away2,696m
- Orlovets4.9 km away2,686m
- Kalin Peak5.1 km away2,668m
- Pogledec15 km away2,691m
6 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
Iskar in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Danube
Romania2,850 km5,400 m³/sTributaries (16)
Also: Zlatna Panega, Blato River, Lesnovska River, Perlovska, Palakaria, Vitoshka Bistritsa, Batuliyska River, Iskretska Reka, Musalenska Bistritsa, Gostila, Malki Iskar, Beli Iskar, Gabrovnitsa, Cherni Iskar, Zheleznishka reka, Kakach River
Serbia
Croatia
Germany
Moldova
AustriaNearby
Rivers nearby
Romania615 km170 m³/s30 km awayJiu RiverRomania331 km94 m³/s50 km awayOsamBulgaria314 km13 m³/s33 km awayVitBulgaria189 km14 m³/s25 km awayYantraBulgaria286 km37 m³/s91 km awayVedea RiverRomania224 km8.4 m³/s91 km awayTimokRomania189 km40 m³/s151 km awayArgeș RiverRomania350 km73 m³/s178 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q217805) · 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 | Cascadyas, Lakeyas, 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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