River
Narva
74 km from source to mouth · Estonia and Russia.
Estonia and RussiaFlows into Narva Bay
In numbers
Length
74km
Average flow
400m³/s
Basin
56,200km²
Drop
28m
from 28 m to 0 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
74 km of river and 13 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmLake Peipusat 28 m
- 2 kmLake Peipus3,489 km²
- 25 kmGorodenka Streamtributary
- 40 kmEesti TPP settling basin II2.6 km²
- 41 kmMustajõgitributary
- 56 kmNarva Reservoir107 km²
- 56 kmNarva Waterfall
- 57 kmNarva railway bridge
- 58 kmNarva Hydroelectric Station
- 58 kmIvangorod11,074 people
- 58 kmFriendship Bridge
- 59 kmNarva54,409 people
- 73 kmNarva-Jõesuu2,681 people
- 74 kmTõrvajõgitributary
- 74 kmNarva Bayat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River between Estonia and Russia
At the mouth it carries 399 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 6.3 seconds. It drops from 28 m to 0 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 56,200 km², about the size of HR. 895,000 people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from April to May; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- NarvaLargest city on its banks · 54,409 people
- Pulkovo Airport (LED)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 126 km from the cityCar hire at TAY airport (Tartu)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water19 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe2 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to AugustThe best months to visit
Narva, month by month
Highest water: from April to May
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from June to August.
From about 270 m³/s in the lowest month to 590 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
Narva: the basin in numbers
56,229 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 895,000people live in the basin
- 16/km²people per km²
- 89maverage altitude of the basin
- 632mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 4.8°Caverage air temperature
- 14%protected areas
- 7.8%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 51% Forest
- 21% Cropland
- 9% Pasture
- 1% 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
Narva: what you find on the way
- 2Weirs
- 5WaterfallsNarva juga and 4 more
- 2RapidsPermisküla kärestik, Kakoloki kärestik
- 5Boat rampsVasknarva paadisadama slipp and 4 more
- 14MarinasVasknarva Harbour, Vasknarva Marina, Vasknarva New Marina and 11 more
- 2River beachesJoaoru rand
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Narva 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
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Narva Waterfallkm 60
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Peipuskm 2 · 18 m deep3,489km²
- Eesti TPP settling basin IIkm 432.6km²
- Narva Reservoirkm 59 · 9 m deep107km²
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.
Photos
Narva in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (9)
Also: Tõrvajõgi, Rosson, Gorodenka Stream, Mustajõgi, Jaama River, Poruni River, Kulgu River, Bolshaya Cheryomukha, Orasoja
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Russia74 km2,500 m³/s134 km awayEmajõgiEstonia100 km70 m³/s122 km awayKymi River
Finland204 km300 m³/s130 km awayAhja RiverEstonia104 km72 m³/s126 km awayVõhandu RiverEstonia165 km11 m³/s150 km awayVelikayaRussia430 km130 m³/s175 km awayPedja RiverEstonia125 km11 m³/s153 km awayPõltsamaa RiverEstonia136 km16 m³/s147 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q209031) · 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 — 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
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