Rokel River

Rokel River
Freetown at the mouth of the river estuary
Other name(s)	Seli River Pamoronkoh River
Country	Sierra Leone
Basin features
Main source	Loma Mountains, Guinea Highlands, Sierra Leone, West Africa
River mouth	Atlantic Ocean

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 10,622 square kilometres (4,101 sq mi) in size, with the drainage divided by the Gbengbe and Kabala hills and the Sula Mountains. The estuary which extends over an area of 2,950 square kilometres (1,140 sq mi) became a Ramsar wetland site of importance in 1999.

The Rokel rises in the 900 metres (3,000 ft) high interior plateau of the Loma Mountains, in the Guinea Highlands of north central Sierra Leone, flows southwest about 240 miles (390 km) through hill ranges and, together with a smaller, parallel stream called Port Loko Creek, feeds into the Rokel estuary before entering the Atlantic Ocean. The estuary, after it joins the Bankasoka River, is also called the Sierra Leone River, is 25 mi (40 km) in length and has a width varying from 4–10 miles (6.4–16.1 km). Freetown and Pepel are the two ports located on the shores of the estuary. As the estuary widens and joins the Atlantic its width is about 11 km (6.8 mi). The southern shore is the deepest and forms a natural harbour, which is reported to be the third largest in the world.

Mangrove swamps and the mud flats are the dominant ecosystem (accounting for 19% of the mangrove forest in the country) noted around the river's ria. The river basin measures 10,622 square kilometres (4,101 sq mi) in size, with the drainage divided by the Gbengbe and Kabala hills and the Sula Mountains. The Rokel drops 15 metres (49 ft) at the Bumbuna waterfalls. Mangrove species recorded are Rhizophora, Avicennia, Laguncularia, and Conocarpus, which cover an area of 34.23 hectares (84.6 acres). Sierra Leone's capital city of Freetown lies at the entrance to the Sierra Leone River, about 25 miles (40 km) from the port of Pepel.