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River

Volga

3,530 km from source to mouth · Russia.

RussiaRussiaFlows into Caspian Sea4th longest in Russia

Follow the riverMonth by month

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

In numbers

Length

3,530km

Average flow

8,100m³/s

Basin

1,360,000km²

Drop

235m

from 204 m to -31 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

3,530 km of river and 68 stops on the way: 22 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

204 m-31 m
Valdai Hillsat 204 m0 km
Tver412,806 people366 km
Yaroslavl563,717 people785 km
Nizhny Novgorod1,198,245 people1,156 km
Kazan1,329,825 people1,532 km
Samara1,154,223 people1,921 km
Saratov838,042 people2,319 km
Volgograd1,012,219 people2,676 km
Astrakhan465,990 people3,121 km
Caspian Seaat -31 m3,530 km
01,0002,0003,0003,530 km
  1. 0 kmValdai Hillsat 204 m
  2. 27 kmKudtributary
  3. 36 kmVselug71 km²
  4. 37 kmZhukopatributary
  5. 61 kmKochatributary
  6. 78 kmVolgo74 km²
  7. 88 kmPesochnyatributary
  8. 99 kmSelizharovkatributary
  9. 110 kmBolshaya Koshatributary
  10. 112 kmMalaya Koshatributary
  11. 146 kmItomlyatributary
  12. 161 kmOrchatributary
  13. 164 kmTudovkatributary
  14. 185 kmSishkatributary
  15. 206 kmRzhev52,619 people
  16. 227 kmVazuza Reservoir61 km²
  17. 227 kmVazuzatributary
  18. 241 kmDyorzhatributary
  19. 286 kmNizhnyaya Staritsatributary
  20. 289 kmKholokholnyatributary
  21. 321 kmUlyusttributary
  22. 350 kmTmatributary
  23. 366 kmTmakatributary
  24. 366 kmTvertsatributary
  25. 366 kmTver412,806 people
  26. 385 kmOrshatributary
  27. 467 kmIvankovo Reservoir215 km²
  28. 469 kmDubna75,179 people
  29. 488 kmKimry38,441 people
  30. 494 kmKimrkatributary
  31. 521 kmMedveditsatributary
  32. 526 kmNerltributary
  33. 526 kmVolnushkatributary
  34. 543 kmKashinkatributary
  35. 550 kmZhabnyatributary
  36. 590 kmUglich Reservoir175 km²
  37. 606 kmKorozhechnatributary
  38. 621 kmYuhottributary
  39. 691 kmRybinsk Reservoir4,042 km²
  40. 700 kmRybinsk169,579 people
  41. 785 kmYaroslavl563,717 people
  42. 1,102 kmGorky Reservoir1,325 km²
  43. 1,124 kmPrud Gogres1.3 km²
  44. 1,156 kmNizhniy Novgorod1,259,013 people
  45. 1,156 kmNizhny Novgorod1,198,245 people
  46. 1,157 kmOzero Bezdennoye0.3 km²
  47. 1,158 kmBor77,024 people
  48. 1,188 kmOzero Vagan'kovo0.4 km²
  49. 1,405 kmCheboksary492,331 people
  50. 1,418 kmCheboksary Reservoir1,009 km²
  51. 1,419 kmNovocheboksarsk128,468 people
  52. 1,501 kmZelenodolsk98,791 people
  53. 1,532 kmKazan1,329,825 people
  54. 1,722 kmUlyanovsk612,516 people
  55. 1,850 kmTolyatti662,683 people
  56. 1,910 kmOzero Gryaznoye (lanaw sa Rusya, Samarskaya Oblast')0.8 km²
  57. 1,921 kmSamara1,154,223 people
  58. 1,923 kmOzero Peschanoye (lanaw sa Rusya, Samarskaya Oblast', lat 53,20, long 50,04)0.6 km²
  59. 2,168 kmSaratov Reservoir1,073 km²
  60. 2,169 kmBalakovo199,572 people
  61. 2,192 kmOzero Balbashev Prud0.4 km²
  62. 2,317 kmEngels196,011 people
  63. 2,319 kmSaratov838,042 people
  64. 2,513 kmKamyshin128,626 people
  65. 2,659 kmVolgograd Reservoir2,613 km²
  66. 2,676 kmVolgograd1,012,219 people
  67. 3,121 kmAstrakhan465,990 people
  68. 3,199 kmBolshaya Chada5.7 km²
  69. 3,227 kmCaspian Sea377,002 km²
  70. 3,530 kmCaspian Seaat -31 m

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

River in Russia; the longest river in Europe

At the mouth it carries 8,060 m³/s on average: 3.2 Olympic pools every second. It drops from 204 m to -31 m, 0.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,360,000 km², about the size of PE. 60.0 million people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from April to July; lowest: from December to March. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 76% of a year's flow.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • KazanLargest city on its banks · 1,329,825 people
  • Kazan International Airport (KZN)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 23 km from the city
  • On the water605 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit

Volga, month by month

Highest water: from April to July

Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from May to September.

4,700
-10°33 mmJan
2,600
-9°25 mmFeb
2,600
-4°24 mmMar
20,700
7°33 mmApr
22,100
14°39 mmMay
21,700
19°57 mmJun
21,200
21°62 mmJul
9,800
19°52 mmAug
10,600
13°48 mmSep
11,400
6°45 mmOct
9,100
-2°43 mmNov
6,900
-7°38 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 2,600 m³/s in the lowest month to 22,100 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

Car hire in RussiaDiscover CarsSee 

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

Volga: the basin in numbers

1,404,107 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

DammedReservoirs can hold 76% of a year's flow: much of the river is a chain of lakes.
  • 60.0millionpeople live in the basin
  • 44/km²people per km²
  • 177maverage altitude of the basin
  • 575mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 3.4°Caverage air temperature
  • 7%protected areas
  • 1.8%covered by lakes
  • 196km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 47% Forest
  • 30% Cropland
  • 13% 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

Volga: what you find on the way

  • 83DamsUglich Hydroelectric Station, Dam #9, Dam №7 and 80 more
  • 18Weirs
  • 60LocksLock №1 of the Moscow Canal, Uglich lock, Lock №11 and 57 more
  • 10Waterfalls
  • 82Boat ramps
  • 302Ferry piersYaroslavl, Pier №2, Pier №3 and 299 more
  • 203Marinas"Mayak" yacht club, Edelweiss and 201 more
  • 18Boat rentals
  • 47River beaches

From OpenStreetMap, within 3.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Volga 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.

  • 18lakes on its wayLakeyas
  • 1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
  • 1island off the mouthIslandyas

Lakes and reservoirs (18)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Ivankovo Reservoirkm 482 · 19 m deep215km²
  2. Uglich Reservoirkm 609 · 23 m deep175km²
  3. Rybinsk Reservoirkm 714 · 28 m deep4,042km²
  4. Gorky Reservoirkm 1,139 · 55 m deep1,325km²
  5. Cheboksary Reservoirkm 1,464 · 35 m deep1,009km²
  6. Saratov Reservoirkm 2,2391,073km²
  7. Volgograd Reservoirkm 2,746 · 10 m deep2,613km²
  8. Caspian Seakm 3,333 · 1,025 m deep377,002km²

10 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Mountains at the source (1)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Gora Kamennik8.2 km away

Open Peakyas ↗

Islands off the mouth (1)

Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas

  1. Zyudev Island19 km away84km²

Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Volga: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Volga: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth162 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

Volga in pictures

Volga River. Tolyatti P8160311 2200
Alexxx1979 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Myshkin. Volga River P5272899 2350
Alexxx1979 · CC BY-SA 4.0
On the Volga River (23769039248)
Dmitriy Protsenko from Dubna, Russia · Public domain
Sunset - Volga River, Russia
flowcomm · CC BY 2.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (134)

KamaRussiaRussia1,805 km4,100 m³/sOkaRussiaRussia1,500 km1,300 m³/sjoins at km 1,193VetlugaRussiaRussia889 km260 m³/sSuraRussiaRussia841 km260 m³/sjoins at km 1,353SamaraRussiaRussia594 km50 m³/sjoins at km 1,988MologaRussiaRussia456 km170 m³/s

Also: Kostroma, Kazanka, Sviyaga, Sheksna, Tvertsa, Unzha, Kerzhenets, Sok, Bolshaya Kokshaga, Vazuza, Shosha, Dubna, Kotorosl, Medveditsa, Maly Irgiz, Selizharovka, Nerl, Kudma, Chapaevka, Kashinka, Tsivil, Uzola, Sit, Nyomda

In the same basin

BelayaRussiaRussia1,430 km950 m³/sVyatkaRussiaRussia1,314 km890 m³/sMoskva RiverRussiaRussia473 km110 m³/sUfaRussiaRussia918 km390 m³/sChusovayaRussiaRussia735 km220 m³/sKlyazmaRussiaRussia686 km150 m³/sMokshaRussiaRussia656 km95 m³/sVisheraRussiaRussia415 km460 m³/sCheptsaRussiaRussia501 km130 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

TerekRussiaRussia623 km300 m³/s221 km awayUral RiverKazakhstanKazakhstan2,428 km400 m³/s335 km awayMaly UzenKazakhstanKazakhstan638 km8.5 m³/s399 km awayBig UzenKazakhstanKazakhstan650 km34 m³/s409 km awayEmba RiverKazakhstanKazakhstan712 km18 m³/s435 km awayAragvi RiverGeorgiaGeorgia112 km33 m³/s482 km awayKsaniGeorgiaGeorgia84 km15 m³/s486 km awayUil RiverKazakhstanKazakhstan800 km2.0 m³/s489 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q626) · 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 atlasesLakeyas, Peakyas, 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.

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