River · Philippines
Cagayan River
The Cagayan River is the longest river in the Philippines. It flows north through a wide green valley on the island of Luzon and reaches the sea at Aparri, in the Babuyan Channel.
Picture credit: JunOrel (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Ralff Nestor Nacor (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Patrickroque01 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is the Cagayan River?
The river starts here: Caraballo Mountains in central Luzon.
It ends in the Babuyan Channel at Aparri, northern Luzon.
Countries on the river: the Philippines.
The story behind it
The Cagayan is the water line of a long valley that lies between two mountain chains, the Sierra Madre and the Cordillera. Farmers there grow rice, maize and tobacco, and much of the country's tobacco comes from these fields. The valley sits right in the path of typhoons that arrive from the Pacific, so the river is famous for floods: after a big storm it can turn from a calm brown ribbon into a wide, fast lake, and villages near the bank are evacuated. Fishers catch ludong, a rare fish that swims downstream to spawn and is so prized it has been called the president's fish. At Aparri the water finally meets the sea, carrying mud from the whole valley. Crocodiles, herons and water buffaloes belong to the picture along the quieter side arms.
Questions children ask
How long is the Cagayan River?
The Cagayan River is 505 km long. No other river in the Philippines is longer, and none carries more water to the sea.
Which countries does the Cagayan River flow through?
Through one country only, the Philippines. Its entire course lies on Luzon, the largest island of the country.
Where does the Cagayan River flow into?
At the town of Aparri in northern Luzon, where it opens into the Babuyan Channel. Boats there must watch out for shifting sandbanks in the mouth.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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