River
Zarqa River
65 km from source to mouth · Jordan.
JordanFlows into Jordan River3rd longest in Jordan
In numbers
Length
65km
Average flow
6.5m³/s
Basin
3,900km²
Drop
881m
from 527 m to -354 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
65 km of river and 0 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 527 m
- 65 kmJordan Riverat -354 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Jordanian river near Amman, tributary to the lower Jordan River
At the mouth it carries 6.5 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 383 seconds. It drops from 527 m to -354 m, 14 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 3,900 km², about the size of CV. 3.4 million people live in it. Highest water: from January to February; lowest: from July to October. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Al JiftlikLargest city on its banks · 3,666 people
- Marka International (Amman Civil) Airport (ADJ)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 51 km from the cityCar hire at ADJ airport (Amman)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From March to May and from October to NovemberThe best months to visit
Zarqa River, month by month
Highest water: from January to February
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from March to May and from October to November.
From about 0.8 m³/s in the lowest month to 18 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
Zarqa River: the basin in numbers
4,104 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 3.4millionpeople live in the basin
- 827/km²people per km²
- 704maverage altitude of the basin
- 226mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 17.1°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 27% Cropland
- 8% Pasture
- 20% 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
Zarqa River: what you find on the way
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Zarqa 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.
53mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (53)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Jabal Umm Ra's3.2 km away
- Jabal Umm Sanāmah11 km away
- Jabal Wada‘ah9.6 km away
- Jabal al Wiḩāsh6.5 km away
- Rujm Z̧almā'12 km away
- Suţūḩ Zikkū10 km away
- Jabal Ţawq Sammūr4.7 km away
- Jabal aţ Ţayy8.7 km away
45 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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
Zarqa River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Jordan RiverJordan252 km52 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
Israel57 km2.6 m³/s59 km awayYarkon RiverIsrael28 km12 m³/s73 km awayWadi MujibJordan72 km3.8 m³/s73 km awayWadi Auja
Palestine208 km47 m³/s25 km awayKishon RiverIsrael70 km7.6 m³/s92 km awayLitani River
Lebanon140 km23 m³/s139 km awayHasbani RiverLebanon65 km5.0 m³/s121 km awayBarada
Syria71 km7.3 m³/s179 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q798460) · 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 | 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
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.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit