Geography of Andorra - Lakes and Rivers

Lakes and Rivers

Andorra is drained almost entirely by a single basin whose main river, the Gran Valira, exits the country in the south near the Spain–Andorra road border crossing. There are two main tributaries and six smaller open basins. These basins gave the name by which the region was traditionally known, The Valleys (Les Valls).

The Valira del Nord is the northwest tributary, flowing from near El Serrat through the settlements of Les Salines, Arans, La Cortinada, Sornàs, Ordino, and La Massana — where it meets the Tristaina River — and eventually through Les Escaldes where it meets the Valira d'Orient forming the Gran Valira.

The Valira d'Orient is the northeast tributary, flowing from near Grau Roig through Soldeu, Canillo, Encamp, and Les Escaldes where it meets the Madriu River and then the Valira del Nord, becoming the Gran Valira.

There are also several much smaller drainage basins that span Andorra's borders with France and Spain. The most notable of these is the Pic de Maià basin whose main river, the Sant Josep, flows easterly out of the country into France and is a tributary of the Ariège River.

Andorra has 172 lakes, of which the largest is Estanys de Juclar (23 hectares / 56.8 acres) near Pic de Noé in the north east.

Read more about this topic:  Geography Of Andorra

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