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River

Khovd River

516 km from source to mouth · Mongolia.

MongoliaMongoliaFlows into Khar-Us Lake5th longest in Mongolia

Follow the riverMonth by month

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

In numbers

Length

516km

Average flow

85m³/s

Basin

58,000km²

Drop

910m

from 2,070 m to 1,160 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

516 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

2,070 m1,160 m
Sourceat 2,070 m0 km
Ölgii28,400 people166 km
Buyant Rivertributary459 km
Khar-Us Lakeat 1,160 m516 km
0200400516 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 2,070 m
  2. 2 kmKhurgan Lake63 km²
  3. 166 kmÖlgii28,400 people
  4. 459 kmBuyant Rivertributary
  5. 516 kmKhar-Us Lakeat 1,160 m

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

River in Mongolia

At the mouth it carries 85 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 29 seconds. It drops from 2,070 m to 1,160 m, 1.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 58,000 km², about the size of TG. 110,000 people live in it. Highest water: from July to August; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • ÖlgiiLargest city on its banks · 28,400 people
  • Ölgii Mongolei International Airport (ULG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 4 km from the city
  • From June to AugustThe best months to visit

Khovd River, month by month

Highest water: from July to August

Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Best months to visit: from June to August.

23
-20°2 mmJan
23
-18°0 mmFeb
23
-8°2 mmMar
30
2°5 mmApr
31
10°9 mmMay
39
15°24 mmJun
50
17°36 mmJul
53
15°22 mmAug
46
9°11 mmSep
33
1°4 mmOct
27
-9°2 mmNov
24
-18°2 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 23 m³/s in the lowest month to 53 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

Khovd River: the basin in numbers

56,318 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Free-flowingDams upstream can hold only 0.0% of a year's flow: the river still keeps its natural rhythm.
  • 110,000people live in the basin
  • 2/km²people per km²
  • 2,316maverage altitude of the basin
  • 170mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • -3.2°Caverage air temperature
  • 20%protected areas
  • 1.4%covered by lakes
  • 1%glaciers
  • 69%permafrost

What covers the basin

  • 88% Pasture
  • 1% 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

Khovd River: what you find on the way

  • 2Weirs

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Khovd 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.

  • 1lake on its wayLakeyas

Lakes and reservoirs (1)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Khurgan Lakekm 2 · 28 m deep63km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Khovd River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Khovd River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth32 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

Khovd River in pictures

Bodonch, Must, Khovd - panoramio
Nyamdorj B · CC BY 3.0
Olgii and Khovd River
BatboldDorjgurkhem · CC BY 4.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (1)

Also: Buyant River

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q2426540) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth 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 atlasesLakeyas — 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