River
Shatt al-Arab
200 km from source to mouth · Iraq and Iran.
Iraq and IranFlows into Persian Gulf6th longest in Iraq
In numbers
Length
200km
Average flow
1,500m³/s
Basin
884,000km²
Drop
2m
from 0 m to -2 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
200 km of river and 9 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmEuphratesat 0 m
- 7 kmAl Qurnah134,174 people
- 8 kmEuphratestributary
- 8 kmTigristributary
- 77 kmAl Hārithah92,395 people
- 96 kmAbū al-Kahṣīb357,771 people
- 126 kmKhorramshahr330,606 people
- 126 kmKarun Rivertributary
- 150 kmAbadan231,476 people
- 200 kmAl Fāw104,569 people
- 200 kmPersian Gulfat -2 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Southwest Asia, formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris in the town of al-Qurnah in the Basra Governorate of southern Iraq
At the mouth it carries 1,500 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.7 seconds. Its basin covers 884,000 km², about the size of VE. 55.4 million people live in it. Highest water: from January to March; lowest: from July to October. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 245% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- Abū al-KahṣībLargest city on its banks · 357,771 people
- Basra International Airport (BSR)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 24 km from the city
- On the water9 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From February to April and from November to DecemberThe best months to visit
Shatt al-Arab, month by month
Highest water: from January to March
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from February to April and from November to December.
From about 380 m³/s in the lowest month to 7,600 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
Shatt al-Arab: the basin in numbers
829,645 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 55.4millionpeople live in the basin
- 67/km²people per km²
- 752maverage altitude of the basin
- 327mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 17.9°Caverage air temperature
- 3%protected areas
- 1.0%covered by lakes
- 229km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 1% Forest
- 19% Cropland
- 24% Pasture
- 2% 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
Shatt al-Arab: what you find on the way
- 7Boat ramps
- 2MarinasPersian Gulf Passenger Terminal
From OpenStreetMap, within 3.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Shatt al-Arab 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
- Abadan Island12 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
Shatt al-Arab in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (4)
Iraq2,800 km820 m³/sjoins at km 7TigrisIraq1,850 km1,000 m³/sjoins at km 7Karun RiverIran950 km580 m³/sjoins at km 119Also: Wadi Al-Batin
Syria
TurkeyWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q166966) · 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
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