Also known as Var River
river in Southern France
Key facts
- Country
- France
- Location
- Maritime Alps
- Elevation
- 1,800 m (5,900 ft)
- Length
- 114 km (71 mi)
- Basin size
- 2,812 km (1,086 mi )
- Average
- 50 to 100 m /s (1,800 to 3,500 cu ft/s)
via Wikipedia infobox
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Var ( French: [vaʁ] , Occitan: [ˈbaɾ]; Italian: Varo; Latin: Varus) is a river located in the southeast of France. It is 114 km (71 mi) long. Its drainage basin is 2,812 km (1,086 sq mi).
The Var flows through the Alpes-Maritimes département for most of its length, with a short (~15 km or ~9 mi) stretch in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département. It is a unique case in France of a river not flowing in the département named after it (see Var). This is the result of the Nice Préfecture being too small to be considered a département by itself in the administrative reshuffling of 1860. Hence, some land had to be taken out of neighbouring Var region causing the eponymous département to lose its namesake.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Var” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.