Geography
The metropolitan city is located in the northwestern part of Kathmandu Valley. The city covers an area of 50.67 square kilometres (19.56 sq mi). The average elevation is 1,350 metres (4,430 ft) above the sea level. The city is bounded by the Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City in its south, Kirtipur Municipality in southwest, Madyapur Thimi Municipality in east, and different Village Development Committees of Kathmandu in north, west, and northeast. However, the urban agglomerate of Kathmandu-Patan-Kirtipur-Thimi-Bhaktapur covers the entire valley and extends beyond the valley to satellite towns of Banepa, Panauti, and Dhulikhel in the east.
Eight rivers flow through the city of which the Bagmati, Bishnumati, Dhobikhola, Manohara, Hanumant and Tukucha rivers are predominant. The mountains from where these rivers originate are in the elevation range of 1,500–3,000 metres (4,900–9,800 ft) and have passes, which provide access to and from Kathmandu and its valley. It falls in the central development region and it is the headquarters of the region. An ancient canal used to flow from Nagarjuna hill through Balaju to Kathmandu. However, the canal has become extinct now.
The Bagmati River originates at Bagdwaar, which literally means "tiger gate" in Sanskrit. The water flows out through a gargoyle shaped like a tiger's mouth in the northern hills of Kathmandu valley about fifteen kilometres northeast of Kathmandu where three steams come together. The mountain streams that cascaded over boulders become a wide, swiftly flowing river, with a high load of suspended solids, giving the river a grey appearance and coating the bottom with a grey silt of glacial flour. The Bagmati flows southwesterly for about ten kilometres along the Kathmandu Valley which is predominately rice-patties in terraces up the slopes. A number of resistant rock strata interrupt the flow down the valley, among these is the outcrop that the Pashupatinath Temple is built upon. Afer passing the temple, the river flows south across the plain where it is joined by the larger Manohara River and turns westward. After entering the city the Bagmati is joined by a number of tributaries, notably the Dhobi Khola and the sewage-laden Tukucha Khola.
The natural vegetation is dictated by the climatic conditions and accordingly five vegetation zones have been defined for Nepal, out of which Kathmandu and its valley fall under the Deciduous Monsoon Forest Zone (altitude range of 1,200–2,100 metres (3,900–6,900 ft)). The dominant tree species under this zone comprises oak, elm, beech, maple, and so forth with coniferous trees at higher elevation.
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