River
Swakop River
460 km from source to mouth · Namibia.
NamibiaFlows into Atlantic Ocean5th longest in Namibia
In numbers
Length
460km
Average flow
16m³/s
Basin
30,100km²
Drop
1,475m
from 1,475 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
460 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 1,475 m
- 198 kmOtjimbingwe7,677 people
- 401 kmKhan Rivertributary
- 446 kmSwakopmund53,009 people
- 460 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 Namibia
At the mouth it carries 16 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 159 seconds. It drops from 1,475 m to 0 m, 3.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 30,100 km², about the size of LS. 381,000 people live in it. Highest water: March; lowest: from July to October. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (25% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- SwakopmundLargest city on its banks · 53,009 people
- Walvis Bay International Airport (WVB)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 36 km from the cityCar hire at WVB airport (Walvis Bay)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water5 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From April to AugustThe best months to visit
Swakop River, month by month
Highest water: March
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from April to August.
From about 1.5 m³/s in the lowest month to 51 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
Swakop River: the basin in numbers
29,452 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 381,000people live in the basin
- 13/km²people per km²
- 1,230maverage altitude of the basin
- 257mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 20.0°Caverage air temperature
- 16%protected areas
- 0.1km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 2% Cropland
- 57% 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
Swakop River: what you find on the way
- 5Boat rampsMole and 4 more
- 2River beachesMole
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Swakop 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.
4beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
1island off the mouthIslandyas
Beaches (4)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Dolfynstrand16 km away18.1°C
- South Beachkm 39518.4°C
- North Beach2.3 km away18.4°C
- Long Beach14 km away18.1°C
Islands off the mouth (1)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Bird Island21 km away0.0km²
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
Swakop River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (1)
Also: Khan River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1455877) · 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 | Coastya, 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 summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
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Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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