In numbers
Length
191km
Average flow
51m³/s
Basin
8,403km²
Drop
1,364m
from 1,665 m to 301 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
191 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,665 m
- 0 kmLake Chrissie12 km²
- 8 kmElandsmeer5.5 km²
- 14 kmLake Banagher1.4 km²
- 78 kmEmpuluzu15,008 people
- 127 kmBhunya3,046 people
- 191 kmMouthat 301 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Eswatini
At the mouth it carries 51 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 49 seconds. It drops from 1,665 m to 301 m, 7.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 8,403 km², about the size of PR. 515,000 people live in it. Highest water: from January to February; lowest: from June to September. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (12% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- EmpuluzuLargest city on its banks · 15,008 people
- King Mswati III International Airport (SHO)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 94 km from the cityCar hire at MQP airport (Mbombela)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to June and from August to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Mzimene River, month by month
Highest water: from January to February
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from April to June and from August to September.
From about 8.4 m³/s in the lowest month to 130 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
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The basin
Mzimene River: the basin in numbers
8,403 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 515,000people live in the basin
- 61/km²people per km²
- 1,349maverage altitude of the basin
- 954mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 16.0°Caverage air temperature
- 7%protected areas
- 0.9%covered by lakes
- 0.2km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 78% Forest
- 11% Cropland
- 57% Pasture
- 3% 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
Mzimene River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Mzimene 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.
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Chrissiekm 0 · 6 m deep12km²
- Elandsmeerkm 85.5km²
- Lake Banagherkm 141.4km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Eswatini73 km7.4 m³/s27 km awayMaputo River
Mozambique300 km110 m³/s130 km awayKomati RiverMozambique480 km110 m³/s163 km awayLimpopo RiverMozambique1,750 km170 m³/s266 km awayTugela River
South Africa520 km170 m³/s287 km awayOlifants River (Limpopo)South Africa560 km110 m³/s307 km awayMalibamat'so River
Lesotho140 km36 m³/s419 km awayBubye River
Zimbabwe1,010 km140 m³/s480 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q4789099) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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 | Lakeyas — 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
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Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
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Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
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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
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit