River
Orb
135 km from source to mouth · France.
FranceFlows into Mediterranean Sea
In numbers
Length
135km
Average flow
23m³/s
Basin
1,330km²
Drop
429m
from 429 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
135 km of river and 24 stops on the way: 16 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 429 m
- 9 kmLac d'Avène0.6 km²
- 25 kmLe Bousquet-d'Orb1,601 people
- 32 kmLa Tour-sur-Orb1,194 people
- 39 kmBédarieux6,907 people
- 47 kmHérépian1,550 people
- 50 kmLamalou-les-Bains2,453 people
- 53 kmLe Poujol-sur-Orb1,003 people
- 65 kmJaurtributary
- 88 kmPont de Cessenon
- 89 kmCessenon-sur-Orb2,410 people
- 99 kmMurviel-lès-Béziers2,796 people
- 101 kmCazouls bridge
- 102 kmCazouls-lès-Béziers5,261 people
- 108 kmLignan-sur-Orb3,232 people
- 110 kmMaraussan3,178 people
- 111 kmTabarka Bridge
- 117 kmPont Vieux of Béziers
- 117 kmPont d'Occitanie
- 117 kmOrb Aqueduct
- 118 kmBéziers81,545 people
- 124 kmVilleneuve-lès-Béziers3,607 people
- 126 kmSauvian4,057 people
- 128 kmSérignan6,936 people
- 135 kmValras-Plage4,078 people
- 135 kmMediterranean Seaat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in France
At the mouth it carries 23 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 107 seconds. It drops from 429 m to 0 m, 3.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,330 km², about the size of MQ. 131,000 people live in it. Highest water: from October to January; lowest: from July to August. Its dams hold back little of its water (3.2% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- BéziersLargest city on its banks · 81,545 people
- Béziers Vias airport (BZR)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 11 km from the cityCar hire at BZR airport (Béziers)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water13 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Orb, month by month
Highest water: from October to January
Lowest water: from July to August. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 7.1 m³/s in the lowest month to 66 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
Orb: the basin in numbers
1,558 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 131,000people live in the basin
- 84/km²people per km²
- 389maverage altitude of the basin
- 730mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 12.7°Caverage air temperature
- 68%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 0.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 68% Forest
- 16% Cropland
- 8% Pasture
- 5% 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
Orb: what you find on the way
- 31Weirs
- 11LocksCanal du Midi, Canalet de Notre-Dame and 9 more
- 4WaterfallsCascade d'Albine, Cascade de la Mouline and 2 more
- 1RapidsRapide du Moulin
- 5Boat rampsEmbarquement Canoë and 4 more
- 2Ferry piersLily Passeur
- 3MarinasPort de Béziers, Port de Sérignan, Port de Valras-Plage
- 4River beachesplage publique, Plage des Orpellières, Plage Sérignan and 1 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Orb 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
2beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
3mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lac d'Avènekm 70.6km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Beaches (2)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Marseillan Plage21 km away22.0°C
- Plage des Chalets23 km away21.9°C
Mountains at the source (3)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Pic de l'Aramount11 km away879m
- Pic de la Buissonade12 km away765m
- Plateau de l'Esandorgue5.6 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.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (6)
Also: Mare, Jaur, Lirou, Vernazobres, Taurou, Ruisseau de Rieutord
Nearby
Rivers nearby
SpainWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2028483) · 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 | Lakeyas, Coastya, 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?
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