[4][3] The Bakanas river originates in the Chingiztau range of the eastern Kazakh Uplands.

Finally it fans out, divides into shallow arms, and its waters disperse in the semidesert sands to the north of the eastern end of the Balkhash lakeshore.

Its mouth lies 25 km (16 mi) west of Aktogay town, in the East Kazakhstan Region.

[3] The river is fed mainly by snow, but it usually carries very little water, and only in the spring, beginning in late March or early April and ending in May or June.

Very rarely, in extremely wet years, the Bakanas flows from the right into the Ayaguz River, which has its mouth in Lake Balkhash.