River
Talas River
661 km from source to mouth · Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan10th longest in Kazakhstan
In numbers
Length
661km
Average flow
170m³/s
Basin
52,700km²
Drop
2,574m
from 2,874 m to 300 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
661 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 2,874 m
- 160 kmTalas40,308 people
- 241 kmKirov Reservoir22 km²
- 252 kmPokrovka8,522 people
- 306 kmSarykemer15,132 people
- 661 kmMouthat 300 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Kirgizstan and Kazakhstan
At the mouth it carries 170 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 15 seconds. It drops from 2,874 m to 300 m, 3.9 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 52,700 km², about the size of BA. 642,000 people live in it. Highest water: from March to May; lowest: February and from July to September. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (22% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- TalasLargest city on its banks · 40,308 people
- Taraz International Airport (DMB)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 85 km from the cityCar hire at ALA airport (Almaty)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Talas River, month by month
Highest water: from March to May
Lowest water: February and from July to September. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from January to February. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 8.7 m³/s in the lowest month to 380 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
Talas River: the basin in numbers
29,400 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 642,000people live in the basin
- 22/km²people per km²
- 1,205maverage altitude of the basin
- 396mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 7.3°Caverage air temperature
- 4%protected areas
- 0.9%covered by lakes
- 5%permafrost
- 0.7km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 8% Cropland
- 58% Pasture
- 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
Talas River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Talas 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
5mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Kirov Reservoirkm 18422km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (5)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Gora Tjaar-Tasj6.9 km away
- Gora Kuldzja-Kysjtoo14 km away
- Gora Tiobjo-Kajnar10 km away
- Gora Tjon-Kajny2.6 km away
- Gora Kara-Kyja12 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.
Photos
Talas River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (1)
Also: Kara-Buura
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Kazakhstan1,318 km130 m³/s195 km awayArys RiverKazakhstan378 km47 m³/s176 km awaySarysuKazakhstan800 km7.3 m³/s258 km awayChatkal River
Uzbekistan217 km130 m³/s261 km awayNaryn RiverUzbekistan807 km430 m³/s376 km awayChirchiqUzbekistan154 km220 m³/s348 km awayKara DaryaUzbekistan180 km140 m³/s376 km awayIli RiverKazakhstan1,439 km480 m³/s413 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q745859) · 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 | 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
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