River
Saalach
106 km from source to mouth · Austria and Germany.
Austria and GermanyFlows into Salzach7th longest in Austria
In numbers
Length
106km
Average flow
140m³/s
Basin
1,043km²
Drop
369m
from 776 m to 407 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
106 km of river and 41 stops on the way: 36 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 776 m
- 0 kmStuhlfelden1,143 people
- 3 kmUttendorf1,789 people
- 10 kmWalchen1,003 people
- 13 kmPiesendorf2,062 people
- 16 kmKaprun3,177 people
- 20 kmLake Zell4.3 km²
- 23 kmPichl1,230 people
- 45 kmSchwarzach im Pongau3,515 people
- 46 kmSankt Veit im Pongau3,788 people
- 47 kmPlankenau1,722 people
- 49 kmReinbach2,253 people
- 49 kmSankt Johann im Pongau4,690 people
- 54 kmMitterberghütten1,368 people
- 55 kmGainfeldwasserfall
- 56 kmBischofshofen7,457 people
- 62 kmWerfen1,570 people
- 75 kmObergäu1,292 people
- 76 kmGolling an der Salzach2,014 people
- 80 kmKuchl1,883 people
- 80 kmGeorgenberg1,809 people
- 83 kmBad Vigaun2,089 people
- 85 kmBurgfried3,358 people
- 86 kmHallein7,208 people
- 87 kmNeualm3,602 people
- 87 kmOberalm4,117 people
- 88 kmMarktschellenberg1,855 people
- 88 kmAu1,334 people
- 89 kmPuch bei Hallein4,065 people
- 90 kmTaxach3,724 people
- 91 kmNiederalm1,575 people
- 93 kmAnif1,814 people
- 94 kmElsbethen2,587 people
- 94 kmGlasenbach1,605 people
- 99 kmSalzburg155,021 people
- 99 kmNaturwaldreservat Saalach-Altarm und umgrenzende Feuchtwiesen
- 102 kmLengfelden1,463 people
- 103 kmBergheim2,777 people
- 103 kmSalzburg-Freilassing Saalbrücke
- 104 kmKäferheimer Mühlbachtributary
- 104 kmFreilassing15,909 people
- 105 kmLehen1,046 people
- 106 kmSalzachat 407 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River
At the mouth it carries 144 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 17 seconds. It drops from 776 m to 407 m, 3.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,043 km², about the size of HK. 491,000 people live in it. Highest water: from March to May; lowest: from January to February. Its dams hold back little of its water (5.1% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- SalzburgLargest city on its banks · 155,021 people
- Salzburg Airport (SZG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 3 km from the cityCar hire at SZG airport (Salzburg)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water24 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe4 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Saalach, month by month
Highest water: from March to May
Lowest water: from January to February. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 46 m³/s in the lowest month to 280 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
Saalach: the basin in numbers
5,790 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 491,000people live in the basin
- 85/km²people per km²
- 1,385maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,293mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 3.8°Caverage air temperature
- 34%protected areas
- 0.4%covered by lakes
- 2%permafrost
- 0.2km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 81% Forest
- 1% Cropland
- 18% Pasture
- 4% 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
Saalach: what you find on the way
- 199WeirsGeschiebesperre, Kraftwerk Urstein, Wehr Glan and 196 more
- 16WaterfallsGrosser Wasserfall, Gainfeld Waterfall, Gollinger Wasserfall and 13 more
- 4Canoe put-ins
- 22Boat rampsSlipstelle Wasserrettung, Slippstelle Wasserrettung, Slippstelle Wasserrrettung and 19 more
- 2Ferry piersAnlegestelle Hellbrunn, Anlegestelle Makartsteg
- 2River beachesFKK Bereich
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Saalach 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
1lake on its wayLakeyas
71mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Gainfeldwasserfallkm 68
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Zellkm 24 · 69 m deep4.3km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (71)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Großer Rettenstein14 km away2,366m
- Pihapper14 km away2,513m
- Stubenkogel15 km away2,535m
- Geißstein3.2 km away2,363m
- Kleiner Rettenstein10 km away2,216m
- Zwölferkogel14 km away2,446m
- Wildseeloder9.0 km away2,119m
- Gamshag0.5 km away2,178m
63 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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
Saalach in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
SalzachGermany225 km250 m³/sTributaries (8)
Also: Schwarzbach, Leoganger Ache, Weißbach, Urslau, Käferheimer Mühlbach, Dießbach, Loferbach, Hammerbach
Romania
Serbia
Croatia
MoldovaNearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q700453) · 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, 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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