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The Rhine is the longest river in Germany. It is here that the Rhine encounters some more of its main tributaries, such as the Neckar, the Main and, later, the Moselle, which contributes an average discharge of more than 300 m 3 /s (11,000 cu ft/s).
- List of Rivers of Europe
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- List of Rivers of Europe
- Overview
- Physiography
Rhine River, river and waterway of western Europe, culturally and historically one of the great rivers of the continent and among the most important arteries of industrial transport in the world. It flows from two small headways in the Alps of east-central Switzerland north and west to the North Sea, into which it drains through the Netherlands. The length of the Rhine was long given as 820 miles (1,320 km), but in 2010 a shorter distance of about 765 miles (1,230 km) was proposed. An international waterway since the Treaty of Vienna in 1815, it is navigable overall for some 540 miles (870 km), as far as Rheinfelden on the Swiss-German border. Its catchment area, including the delta area, exceeds 85,000 square miles (220,000 square km).
The Rhine has been a classic example of the alternating roles of great rivers as arteries of political and cultural unification and as political and cultural boundary lines. The river also has been enshrined in the literature of its lands, especially of Germany, as in the famous epic Nibelungenlied. Since the time when the Rhine valley became incorporated into the Roman Empire, the river has been one of Europe’s leading transport routes. Until the 19th century the goods transported were of high value but relatively small in volume, but since the second half of the 19th century the volume of goods conveyed on the river has increased greatly. The fact that cheap water transport on the Rhine helped to keep prices of raw materials down was the main reason the river became a major axis of industrial production: one-fifth of the world’s chemical industries are now manufacturing along the Rhine. The river was long a source of political dissension in Europe, but this has given way to international concern for ecological safeguards as pollution levels have risen; some 6,000 toxic substances have been identified in Rhine waters.
The Rhine rises in two headstreams high in the Swiss Alps. The Vorderrhein emerges from Lake Toma at 7,690 feet (2,344 metres), near the Oberalp Pass in the Central Alps, and then flows eastward past Disentis to be joined by the Hinterrhein from the south at Reichenau above Chur. (The Hinterrhein rises about five miles west of San Bernardino Pass, near the Swiss–Italian border, and is joined by the Albula River below Thusis.) Below Chur, the Rhine leaves the Alps to form the boundary first between Switzerland and the principality of Liechtenstein and then between Switzerland and Austria, before forming a delta as the current slackens at the entrance to Lake Constance. In this flat-floored section the Rhine has been straightened and the banks reinforced to prevent flooding. The Rhine leaves the lake via its Untersee arm. From there to its bend at Basel, the river is called the Hochrhein (“High Rhine”) and defines the Swiss-German frontier, except for the area below Stein am Rhein, where the frontier deviates so that the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen are entirely within Switzerland. Downstream the Rhine flows swiftly between the Alpine foreland and the Black Forest region, its course interrupted by rapids, where—as at Laufenburg (Switzerland) and Säckingen and Schwörstadt (Germany)—barrages (dams) have been built. In this stretch the Rhine is joined by its Alpine tributaries, the Thur, Töss, Glatt, and Aare, and by the Wutach from the north. The Rhine has been navigable between Basel and Rheinfelden since 1934.
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Water and its Varying Forms
Below Basel the Rhine turns northward to flow across a broad, flat-floored valley, some 20 miles wide, held between, respectively, the ancient massifs of the Vosges Mountains and Black Forest uplands and the Haardt Mountains and Odenwald (Oden Forest) upland. The main tributary from Alsace is the Ill, which joins the Rhine at Strasbourg, and various shorter rivers, such as the Dreisam and the Kinzig, drain from the Black Forest. Downstream, the regulated Neckar, after crossing the Oden uplands in a spectacular gorge as far as Heidelberg, enters the Rhine at Mannheim; and the Main leaves the plain of lower Franconian Switzerland for the Rhine opposite Mainz. Until the straightening of the upper Rhine, which began in the early 19th century, the river described a series of great loops, or meanders, over its floodplain, and today their remnants, the old backwaters and cutoffs near Breisach and Karlsruhe, mark the former course of the river.
The middle Rhine is the most spectacular and romantic reach of the river. In this 90-mile (145-km) stretch the Rhine has cut a deep and winding gorge between the steep, slate-covered slopes of the Hunsrück mountains to the west and the Taunus Mountains to the east. Vineyards mantle the slopes as far as Koblenz, where the Moselle River joins the Rhine at the site the Romans called Confluentes. On the right bank, the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein dominates the Rhine where the Lahn tributary enters. Downstream the hills recede, the foothills of the volcanic Eifel region lying to the west and those of the Westerwald (Wester Forest) to the east. At Andernach, where the ancient Roman frontier left the Rhine, the basaltic Seven Hills rise steeply to the east of the river, where, as the English poet Lord Byron put it, “the castle crag of Dachenfels frowns o’er the wide and winding Rhine.”
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Rhineland, area of western Germany along both banks of the middle Rhine River. It lies east of Germany’s border with France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. It was the scene of recurrent crises during the first half of the 20th century and was an early test of Allied resolve against Hitler’s aggression.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jun 28, 2021 · The Upper Rhine flows northwards for about 300 kilometers through the Upper Rhine plains and is joined by tributaries such as the Ill River, Neckar, and Main, which joins the Rhine near Mainz. From Mainz, Upper Rhine exits the Rhine Valley via the Mainz Basin and later forms the border between Germany (Baden-Württemberg) and France (Alsace).
- John Misachi
Rhine River, German Rhein, River, western Europe. Rising in the Swiss Alps , it flows north and west through western Germany to drain through the delta region of the Netherlands into the North Sea. It is 820 mi (1,320 km) long, though in 2010 a length of 765 mi (1,230 km) was proposed; it is navigable for 540 mi (870 km).
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Rhine River. The Rhine River ( German: Rhein, French: Rhin, Dutch: Rijn) is 1,230 kilometres (760 mi) long. Its name comes from the Celtic word " renos ", which means 'raging flow'. The Rhine is an important waterway. 883 kilometres (549 mi) can be used by ships, and boats can go to the Black Sea using the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal.
Germany’s longest river, and one of the longest in Europe, the Rhine (German: Rhein) originates in the Alps of the Swiss state of Graubünden.By the time it flows into Lake Constance a.k.a. Bodensee and continues its journey through Germany to the Netherlands’ border west of Duisburg, the Rhine has already traveled 375km or 233 miles.
