River
Tarim River
2,030 km from source to mouth · China.
ChinaFlows into Tarim Basin6th longest in China
In numbers
Length
2,030km
Average flow
920m³/s
Basin
557,000km²
Drop
4,214m
from 5,090 m to 876 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
2,030 km of river and 8 stops on the way: 5 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 5,090 m
- 611 kmHuoshilafu17,351 people
- 634 kmKaqun18,749 people
- 743 kmAwati25,119 people
- 773 kmDunbage17,579 people
- 1,222 kmAksu Rivertributary
- 1,222 kmYarkand Rivertributary
- 1,229 kmHotan Rivertributary
- 1,262 kmĀlā'ĕr126,259 people
- 2,030 kmTarim Basinat 876 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in the People's Republic of China
At the mouth it carries 920 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 2.7 seconds. It drops from 5,090 m to 876 m, 2.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 557,000 km², about the size of FR. 9.4 million people live in it. Highest water: August; lowest: from December to February. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Ālā'ĕrLargest city on its banks · 126,259 people
- Aksu Hongqipo Airport (AKU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 114 km from the city
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Tarim River, month by month
Highest water: August
Lowest water: from December to February. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 54 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,000 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
Tarim River: the basin in numbers
631,332 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 9.4millionpeople live in the basin
- 15/km²people per km²
- 2,244maverage altitude of the basin
- 77mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 6.0°Caverage air temperature
- 7%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 4%glaciers
- 17%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 1% Forest
- 3% Cropland
- 17% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
- 4% 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
Tarim River: what you find on the way
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.9 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
Tarim River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
KyrgyzstanWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q237901) · 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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