| Bahr el Ghazal | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Sudd swamps |
| Mouth | White Nile |
| Basin countries | South Sudan |
| Length | 445 miles |
| Source elevation | 428 metres above sea level circa |
| Avg. discharge | 1,700 ft³/s |
| Basin area | 200,800 mi² |
The Bahr el Ghazal (also spelled Bahr al Ghazal and Baḩr al Ghazāl) is a river in South Sudan. The name translates as "sea of gazelles". The South Sudanese region of Bahr el Ghazal takes its name from the river.
The Bahr el Ghazal is the main western tributary of the Nile. It is 716 kilometres (445 mi) long, flowing through the Sudd wetlands to Lake No, where it joins the White Nile.[1]
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The Bahr al Ghazal's drainage basin is the largest of any of the Nile's sub-basins, measuring 520,000 km² (200,800 mi²) in size, but it contributes a relatively small amount of water, about 2 m³/s (70 ft³/s) annually, due to tremendous volumes of water being lost in the Sudd wetlands.[2] Seasonally, the river's discharge ranges from nothing to 48 m³/s (1,700 ft³/s).[1]
According to some sources, the river is formed by the confluence of the Jur River and Bahr al-Arab rivers.[1] However other more recent sources say the river forms in the Sudd wetlands with no definitive source, that the Jur River joins at Lake Ambadi, and the Bahr al-Arab joins below that.[3] The river's drainage basin, including its tributaries, is 851,459 square kilometres (328,750 sq mi) and reaches west to the border of the Central African Republic and northwest to the Darfur region.
The river was first mapped in 1772 by French geographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, although it was vaguely known to early Greek geographers.
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