Caraulun River

The Caraulun River (Ribeira Caraulun or Rio Caraulun, Tetum: Mota Caraulun or Mota Karaulun) is a river in Timor-Leste. It flows for the most part in a southerly direction, forms the southern part of the border between Ainaro and Manufahi municipalities, and discharges into the Timor Sea.

The river's name has its origins in the Tetum expression Karau Ulun, which means buffalo head. The river itself is said to resemble buffalo horns. According to anthropologist Matthew Libbis: "The local story is that two boys were thirsty and went looking for water. A dog led them to a buffalo head in the ground. When they pulled it out, a spring emerged and increased in flow until it became the river that now runs to the sea." Libbis went on to observe that there was another version of the story, involving two brothers, one of whom thrust a spear causing a spring to gush forth from the ground. In that version, the two brothers represented a division between earth and sky, with the older brother belonging in the mountains.

The headwaters of the river are in the portion of Timor-Leste's central mountains ranging from just to the south of Maubisse in Ainaro municipality to just to the south of Turiscai in Manufahi municipality. For the most part, the river and its tributaries flow in a southerly direction, mainly through the latter of those two municipalities, until the river and its tributary the Asa (or Aiasa) River reach the southern tip of Suco Daisua in Manufahi. There, at the tripoint between Ainaro municipality and the two sucos of Daisua and Betano in Manufahi municipality, the tributary enters the river. From the tripoint, the river continues generally in a southerly direction, and forms the border between the two municipalities, until it discharges into the Timor Sea 5 km (3.1 mi) west of Betano. The river's main channel is one of the four perennial streams in Manufahi. Additionally, it is one of only eight such watercourses in southern Timor-Leste that can potentially be inhabited by saltwater crocodiles all year round (the others being the Bebui, Belulik, Clerec, Dilor, Irabere, South Laclo, and Tafara rivers). After periods

Flows through: Timor-Leste.

River data from Wikidata (CC0); lengths normalised to a common unit.