Skip to content
riveryas
EN

River

Tekezé River

608 km from source to mouth · Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

SudanEthiopiaEritreaSudan, Ethiopia and EritreaFlows into Atbarah River4th longest in Sudan

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouth
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

608km

Average flow

140m³/s

Basin

66,800km²

Drop

2,017m

from 2,497 m to 480 m

Countries

3

The journey

From source to mouth

608 km of river and 7 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

2,497 m480 m
Sourceat 2,497 m0 km
Balagas Rivertributary150 km
Giba Rivertributary263 km
Ataba Rivertributary265 km
Zarima Rivertributary352 km
Abala25,300 people463 km
Himora46,100 people500 km
Atbarah Riverat 480 m608 km
0200400608 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 2,497 m
  2. 150 kmBalagas Rivertributary
  3. 263 kmGiba Rivertributary
  4. 265 kmAtaba Rivertributary
  5. 269 kmWari Rivertributary
  6. 352 kmZarima Rivertributary
  7. 463 kmAbala25,300 people
  8. 500 kmHimora46,100 people
  9. 608 kmAtbarah Riverat 480 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

River in Ethiopia

At the mouth it carries 143 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 17 seconds. It drops from 2,497 m to 480 m, 3.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 66,800 km², about the size of LK. 7.6 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • HimoraLargest city on its banks · 46,100 people
  • Kassala Airport (KSL)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 124 km from the city
  • On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From October to FebruaryThe best months to visit

Tekezé River, month by month

Highest water: from August to September

Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from October to February.

23
24°4 mmJan
21
25°3 mmFeb
27
27°13 mmMar
33
28°14 mmApr
84
28°40 mmMay
250
27°79 mmJun
1,000
24°205 mmJul
1,700
24°214 mmAug
1,500
25°82 mmSep
810
25°17 mmOct
180
24°8 mmNov
32
24°4 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 21 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,700 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

Tekezé River: the basin in numbers

97,634 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Free-flowingDams upstream can hold only 0.0% of a year's flow: the river still keeps its natural rhythm.
  • 7.6millionpeople live in the basin
  • 78/km²people per km²
  • 1,499maverage altitude of the basin
  • 786mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 22.8°Caverage air temperature
  • 7%protected areas

What covers the basin

  • 20% Cropland
  • 20% 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

Tekezé River: what you find on the way

  • 3DamsTekezé, Upper Atbara and Setit Dam Complex
  • 15Waterfalls
  • 1Marinas

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Tekezé 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.

  • 1mountain at the sourcePeakyas

Mountains at the source (1)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Socona13 km away

Open Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Tekezé River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Tekezé River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth43 km across

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

Tekezé River in pictures

Tekeze
Ondřej Žváček · CC BY 2.5
Tekeze-Fluss, Tigray. 20. Jan. 2013-von der Brücke aus
Florian Fell · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tekeze river at the border of Tselemti and Tsimbla woredas in Tigray 10
Jnyssen · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tekeze bridge in between Kafta Humera and Tahtay Adiyabo Woredas in Tigray
Jnyssen · CC BY-SA 4.0

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q843308) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesPeakyas — 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.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit