The Komati River, also known as the Inkomati River or Incomati River (in Mozambique, from Portuguese Rio Incomati), is a river in South Africa, Eswatini and Mozambique. Originating in north-western Eswatini, it is joined by the Crocodile River in the Lebombo Mountains, enters far south-western Mozambique below the border town of Komatipoort, and enters the Indian Ocean around north-east of Maputo. It is long, with a drainage basin in size. Its mean annual discharge is 111 m3/s (3,920 cfs) at its mouth. The name Komati is derived from inkomati, meaning "cow" in siSwati, as its perennial nature is compared to a cow that always has milk. Geography The river originates west of Carolina, rising at an elevation of about near Breyten in the Ermelo district of the Mpumalanga province. It flows in a general northeasterly direction and reaches the Indian Ocean at Maputo Bay, after a course of some . The Komati Gorge is situated in the upper reaches of the Komati River and is the habitat of some endangered species such as the southern bald ibis. In 2001 the 115 m high wall of the Maguga Dam was completed south of Piggs Peak, Eswatini, In its upper valley near Steynsdorp are goldfields, but the reefs consist almost entirely of low grade ore. The river descends the Drakensberg by a pass south of Barberton, and is deflected northward at the eastern border of Eswatinid, keeping a course parallel to the Lebombo mountains. Just west of 32° E and 25° 25′ S, near the town of Komatipoort, it is joined by the Crocodile River. The Crocodile tributary rises, as the Elands River, in the Bergendal (1,961 m) near the upper waters of the Komati, and flows eastwards across the highveld, being turned northward as it reaches the Drakensberg escarpment. The fall to the lowveld is over 600 metres in , and across the wide country between the Drakensberg and the Lebombo there is a further fall of 900 metres. Just over a kilometre below the junction of the Crocodile, the united stream, which from this point is also known as the Manhissa, passes to the coastal plain through a 190 m high cleft, high in the Lebombo known as Komatipoort, featuring some picturesque falls. At Komatipoort, which marks the border between South Africa and Mozambique, the river is less than from its mouth in a direct line, but in crossing the