The Sierra Leone River is a river

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

on the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

in Western

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

. It is formed by the

Bankasoka River The Bankasoka River is a river in Sierra Leone. As a tidal estuary (also called ''Port Loko Creek'') it combines with the Rokel River to the south to form the Sierra Leone River.West Africa Topographical Maps, Series N504, 1:250,000, U.S. Army Map ...

and

Rokel River The Rokel River (also Seli River; previously Pamoronkoh River) is the largest river in the Republic of Sierra Leone in West Africa. The river basin measures in size, with the drainage divided by the Gbengbe and Kabala hills and the Sula Mountains ...

and is between 4 and 10 miles wide (6–16 km) and 25 miles (40 km) long. It holds the major ports of

Queen Elizabeth II Quay Queen Elizabeth II Quay, also known as QE II Quay () and by residents as the Deep Water Quay, is a locality in Freetown, Sierra Leone. It is located on a promontory called Fourah Point (also known variously as ''Farran'' Point, ''Farren'' Point ...

and

Pepel Pepel is a coastal town in the Port Loko District in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Port Pepel has a port in the Sierra Leone River used for shipping bulk iron ore via the mining company African Minerals. Railway Pepel is connec ...

. The estuary is also important for shipping. It is the largest natural harbour in the African continent. Several islands, including

Tasso Island TASSO (Two Arm Spectrometer SOlenoid) was a particle detector at the PETRA particle accelerator at the German national laboratory DESY. The TASSO collaboration is best known for having discovered the gluon, the mediator of the strong interactio ...

(the largest),

Tombo Island Tombo Island is an island in the Atlantic Ocean at the tip of the Guinean Kaloum Peninsula, approximately east of the Iles de Los, Loos Islands. The island is the site where the capital Conakry was built on. It is the site of the old city of Co ...

, and the historically important

Bunce Island Bunce Island (also spelled "Bence," "Bense," or "Bance" at different periods) is an island in the Sierra Leone River. It is situated in Freetown Harbour, the estuary of the Rokel River and Port Loko Creek, about upriver from Sierra Leone's capi ...

, are located in the estuary.

Lungi International Airport

The river separates

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...

, Sierra Leone's capital city, which is on the south side of the harbor, from the country's principal airport,

Lungi International Airport Freetown International Airport (officially), locally known as Lungi International Airport, is an international airport located in the coastal town of Lungi, Sierra Leone. It is the only international airport in Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Rive ...

, which is on the north side of the harbor in an area called the "Bullom Shore." The primary means of transportation from the airport to Freetown are by speed boat or ferry. Hovercraft, or helicopter services are no longer running.

Ecology

The of the Sierra Leone River estuary is classified as a wetland of international importance

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It i ...

in the west of

. The area is mainly

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

swamps but also includes tidal freshwater swamp forests.Ramsar Sites Information Service
, Ramsar, retrieved on 10 November 2007

Lungi International Airport

Ecology

References

See also