Buffalo Bayou

Watercourse in southern Texas, on which the city of Houston was established in the 1830s. Buffalo Bayou, which is 72 km/45 mi long, rises in creeks east of the Brazos River and flows east through the modern metropolis of Houston to join the San Jacinto River and enter Galveston Bay.

The Port of Houston, with its Turning Basin, is 6 km/4 mi east of the city centre on Buffalo Bayou; below it, the bayou has become part of the Houston Ship Channel. Six smaller bayous join the Buffalo in the metropolitan area, including Brays Bayou (to the southwest), at whose confluence with the Buffalo, southeast of the city centre, the town of Harrisburg was settled before Houston was created; the other bayous are Sims (to the south), White Oak (to the northwest), Hunting (to the north), Green (to the northeast), and Carpenter (to the northeast).