River
Saramacca River
255 km from source to mouth · Suriname.
SurinameFlows into Atlantic Ocean3rd longest in Suriname
In numbers
Length
255km
Average flow
280m³/s
Basin
9,400km²
Drop
149m
from 149 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
255 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 149 m
- 41 kmToehimi Soela
- 165 kmBigi Poika525 people
- 216 kmGroningen2,818 people
- 255 kmAtlantic Oceanat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Suriname
At the mouth it carries 279 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 9.0 seconds. It drops from 149 m to 0 m, 0.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 9,400 km², about the size of CY. 88,000 people live in it. Highest water: from June to July; lowest: from October to November. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- GroningenLargest city on its banks · 2,818 people
- Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport (PBM)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 48 km from the cityCar hire at PBM airport (Paramaribo)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From February to March and from September to NovemberThe best months to visit
Saramacca River, month by month
Highest water: from June to July
Lowest water: from October to November. Best months to visit: from February to March and from September to November.
From about 160 m³/s in the lowest month to 520 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
Saramacca River: the basin in numbers
9,454 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 88,000people live in the basin
- 9/km²people per km²
- 100maverage altitude of the basin
- 2,312mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 26.5°Caverage air temperature
- 21%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 84% Forest
- 1% Cropland
- 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
Saramacca River: what you find on the way
- 2Locks
- 1Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Saramacca 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.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Toehimi Soelakm 68
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- De Kock Berg0.8 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 (1)
Also: Cabanakreek
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Suriname400 km550 m³/s5 km awaySuriname RiverSuriname480 km440 m³/s90 km awayCourantyne River
Guyana724 km580 m³/s135 km awayMaroni
French Guiana612 km1,700 m³/s212 km awayBerbice RiverGuyana595 km370 m³/s185 km awayEssequibo RiverGuyana1,014 km2,100 m³/s304 km awayDemerara RiverGuyana350 km290 m³/s272 km awayLawa RiverFrench Guiana362 km970 m³/s232 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2167056) · 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, 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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