River
Shyok River
550 km from source to mouth · Pakistan and India.
Pakistan and IndiaFlows into Indus River6th longest in Pakistan
In numbers
Length
550km
Average flow
130m³/s
Basin
33,465km²
Drop
2,583m
from 4,868 m to 2,285 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
550 km of river and 6 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmRimo Glacierat 4,868 m
- 22 kmChip Chap Rivertributary
- 122 kmGalwan Rivertributary
- 192 kmChang Chenmo Rivertributary
- 316 kmNubra Rivertributary
- 475 kmHushe Rivertributary
- 509 kmYougu6,000 people
- 550 kmIndus Riverat 2,285 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in India and Pakistan
At the mouth it carries 133 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 19 seconds. It drops from 4,868 m to 2,285 m, 4.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 33,465 km², about the size of MD. 138,000 people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from April to May; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- YouguLargest city on its banks · 6,000 people
- Skardu International Airport (KDU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 59 km from the cityCar hire in IslamabadDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From July to AugustThe best months to visit
Shyok River, month by month
Highest water: from April to May
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from July to August.
From about 7.4 m³/s in the lowest month to 510 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
Shyok River: the basin in numbers
60,982 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 138,000people live in the basin
- 3/km²people per km²
- 5,048maverage altitude of the basin
- 80mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -5.2°Caverage air temperature
- 9%protected areas
- 1.2%covered by lakes
- 12%glaciers
- 64%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 2% Pasture
- 12% Ice
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
Shyok River: what you find on the way
- 3WaterfallsBarah waterfall
- 1River beachesPebble beach
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
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
Shyok River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Indus RiverPakistan3,180 km6,600 m³/sTributaries (6)
Also: Galwan River, Chip Chap River, Nubra River, Chang Chenmo River, Hushe River, Jeong Nala
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Pakistan263 km1,000 m³/s126 km awayKabul RiverPakistan460 km1,200 m³/s368 km awayPamir River
Afghanistan118 km13 m³/s353 km awayWakhan RiverAfghanistan220 km16 m³/s353 km awayBeas RiverIndia470 km1,400 m³/s463 km awayGunt River
Tajikistan296 km100 m³/s467 km awayBartang RiverTajikistan528 km130 m³/s491 km awayKunar RiverAfghanistan480 km370 m³/s499 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1587234) · 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 |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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