Cyprus Rivers

Hydrographically, Cyprus is made of 70 basins and 380 sub basins. The basins concern the land area in which the rain water is collected into a central system. The difference between the basins and the sub basins is the fact the basins concern rivers while the sub basins concern the smaller rivers. For example the sub basins of the smaller rivers of Limnati, Kouri and Kriou end up in a central basin of the Kouris River.

During the least 10 years, the average amount of water that ends in the rivers on the island is 275 million cubical metres a year. 108 dams have been made in order to collect the river water, maintaining the 70% of the surface flow with 1/3 of it pouring into the sea. This lead to the drastic decrease of the water that flows towards the sea. This places Cyprus as the number one country in Europe to decrease the amount of water lost into the sea, in relation to the dam capacity and the extent of the island.

Cyprus rivers are located in various locations across the island such as in the Paphos district, Limassol district, Larnaca district, Nicosia district , Kyrenia district and Famagusta district. 

Most rivers come from the area of the Troodos Mountains. The weather distribution of the surface runoff follows the seasonal distribution of precipitation with the least amounts during the summer months and the highest amounts during the winter months.

The result of the eastern Mediterranean climate, which is characterised by a long hot summer and low annual rainfall, is that there aren’t any rivers with a continuous flow throughout their whole length.Most rivers flow for about 3 to 4 months during the year and dry out for the rest of the year.

Only some parts of a few rivers which are in the main area of Troodos have a continuous flow (Xeros River, Diarizos River,  Kargotis Marathasas River , Kouris River and Yermasoyia River).

 Most of the rivers have a steep slope apart from the rivers in the plain areas along the south side of the island. Most of the rivers however, are located at an intermediate altitude.

For the full list you can refer to this page here or you can choose from the ones displayed below which include a description, some photos and in some cases a video.