River
Rufiji River
600 km from source to mouth · Tanzania.
TanzaniaFlows into Indian Ocean2nd longest in Tanzania
In numbers
Length
600km
Average flow
790m³/s
Basin
178,000km²
Drop
477m
from 478 m to 1 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
600 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 478 m
- 254 kmUlanga Rivertributary
- 339 kmGreat Ruaha Rivertributary
- 476 kmUtete11,888 people
- 503 kmMkapa Bridge
- 600 kmIndian Oceanat 1 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Tanzania
At the mouth it carries 792 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 3.2 seconds. It drops from 478 m to 1 m, 0.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 178,000 km², about the size of UY. 3.3 million people live in it. Highest water: April; lowest: from August to November. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (12% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- UteteLargest city on its banks · 11,888 people
- Julius Nyerere International Airport (DAR)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 133 km from the cityCar hire at DAR airport (Dar es Salaam)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to OctoberThe best months to visit
Rufiji River, month by month
Highest water: April
Lowest water: from August to November. Best months to visit: from June to October.
From about 300 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,200 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
Rufiji River: the basin in numbers
177,135 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 3.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 19/km²people per km²
- 897maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,032mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 22.5°Caverage air temperature
- 54%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 3.4km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 39% Forest
- 4% Cropland
- 43% Pasture
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
Rufiji River: what you find on the way
- 2Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Rufiji 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.
1island off the mouthIslandyas
Islands off the mouth (1)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Bwejuu Island26 km away
Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
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
Rufiji River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q936023) · 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 | Islandyas — 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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Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 
mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
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