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The Rhine is one of the most important rivers in Europe
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Grisons , Switzerland
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North Sea
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Switzerland , Italy , Liechtenstein , Austria , Germany , France , Luxembourg , Netherlands
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1,320 km (820 mi)
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Vorderrhein: approx 2,600 m (8,500 ft) <br /> Hinterrhein: approx 2,500 m (8,200 ft)
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border: 2,260 m³/s (79,823 ft³/s)
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185,000 km&2 (71,430 mi&2)
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- ''rei-'' ("to flow, run"), which also gave the verb "to run" in English.
The Rhine and the
Danube formed most of the northern frontier of the
Roman Empire , and since those days the Rhine has been a vital navigable waterway, carrying trade and goods deep inland. The many castles and prehistoric fortifications along the Rhine testify to its importance as a waterway. A castle identifies a location where traffic was stopped, usually for the purpose of collecting tolls, by the state controlling that portion of the river.
in
Switzerland ]]
near
Koblenz was built in 1231]]
near to Cologne]]
The Rhine's origins are in the Swiss
Alps in the canton of
Graubünden , where its two main initial
Tributaries are called ''
Vorderrhein '' and ''
Hinterrhein ''. The Vorderrhein (anterior Rhine) springs from Lake Tuma near the
Oberalp Pass and passes the impressive
Ruinaulta (the Swiss Grand Canyon). The Hinterrhein (posterior Rhine) starts from the Paradies glacier near the Rheinquellhorn at the southern border of Switzerland. Both tributaries meet near
Reichenau , still in Graubünden. From Reichenau, the Rhine flows north as the ''
Alpenrhein '' passing
Chur and forming the frontier with
Liechtenstein and then
Austria , and then emptying into
Lake Constance . Emerging from Lake Constance, flowing west as the ''
Hochrhein '' it passes the
Rhine Falls and is joined by the
Aare river which more than doubles its water discharge to an average of nearly 1,000 cubic meters per second. It forms the boundary to Germany until it turns north at the so-called
Rhine Knee at
Basel .
Past Basel, as the
Upper Rhine , it forms the southern part of the border between
Germany and
France in a wide valley, before entering
Germany exclusively.
At over 1000 kilometres in length, the Rhine is the longest river primarily within
Germany . It is here that the Rhine encounters some of its main tributaries, such as the
Neckar , the
Main and later the
Moselle , which contributes an average discharge of over 300 cubic meters per second.
Between
Bingen and
Bonn , the
Middle Rhine flows through the
Rhine Gorge , a formation created by erosion, which happened at about the same rate as an
Uplift in the region, leaving the river at about its original level, and the surrounding lands raised. This gorge is quite deep, and is the stretch of the river known for its many
Castle s and
Vineyard s. It is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site (2002) and known as "the romantic Rhine" with more than 40 castles and fortresses from the Middle Ages (see links) and many lovely wine-villages.
Though many industries can be found along the Rhine up into
Switzerland , it is along the
Lower Rhine in the
Ruhr Area that the bulk of them are concentrated. The
Ruhr river, a surprisingly clean river used for drinking water production, adds another 70 cubic meters per second to the Rhine here; however other rivers from the
Ruhr Area , above all the
Emscher , still cause a considerable degree of
Pollution . Approaching the Dutch border, the Rhine now has an average discharge of 2,290 cubic metres per second and an average width of more than 1,000 feet.
The Rhine then turns west into the ,
Nederrijn ("Lower Rhine") and
IJssel branches.
From here the situation becomes more complicated, as the name "Rhine" no longer coincides with the main flow of water. Most of the Rhine water (two thirds) flows further west through the Waal and then via the
Nieuwe Waterweg and, merging with the Meuse, through the
Hollands Diep and
Haringvliet Estuaries and the
Nieuwe Waterweg into the
North Sea . The other third portion of the water flows through the
Pannerdens Kanaal and redistributes in the IJssel and Nederrijn.
The IJssel branch carries one third of the water volume north into the
IJsselmeer , while the Nederrijn flows west parallel to the Waal and carries approximately two ninths of the flow. However, at
Wijk Bij Duurstede the Nederrijn changes its name and becomes the
Lek . It flows further west to rejoin the main flow into the
Nieuwe Maas and so the North Sea.
The name "Rhine" from here on is used only for smaller streams further to the north which together once formed the main river Rhine in
Roman times. Though they retained the name, these streams do not carry water from the Rhine anymore, but are used for draining the surrounding land and
Polder s. From Wijk bij Duurstede, the old north branch of the Rhine is called
Kromme Rijn ("Crooked Rhine") and past
Utrecht , first
Leidse Rijn ("
Leiden Rhine") and then
Oude Rijn ("Old Rhine"). The latter flows west into a
Sluice at
Katwijk , where its waters can be discharged into the
North Sea . This branch once formed the line along which the
Upper Germanic Limes were built.
Basel ,
Strasbourg ,
Karlsruhe ,
Mannheim ,
Ludwigshafen ,
Wiesbaden ,
Mainz ,
Koblenz ,
Bonn ,
Cologne ,
Düsseldorf ,
Neuss ,
Krefeld ,
Duisburg ,
Arnhem (Nederrijn),
Nijmegen (Waal),
Utrecht (Kromme Rijn),
Rotterdam (Nieuwe Maas).
Konstanz ,
Schaffhausen , ...,
Speyer ,
Worms ,
Bingen ,
Rüdesheim ,
Neuwied ,
Andernach ,
Bad Honnef ,
Königswinter ,
Niederkassel ,
Wesseling ,
Dormagen ,
Zons ,
Monheim ,
Wesel ,
Xanten ,
Emmerich ,
Zutphen (IJssel),
Deventer (IJssel),
Kampen (IJssel).
Railway Bridge s (with nearest
Train station on the left and right bank):
- Switzerland
- ---Tens of bridges in Graubünden, too numerous to list
Tributaries from source to mouth:
Since the Rhine flows from the
Alps , a precondition of its existence is the uplifting of the Alps, which began in the
Alpine Orogeny . The stage was set in the
Triassic Period of the
Mesozoic Era, with the opening of
Tethys Sea between the Eurasian and the African
Plates , between about 240
MBP and 220 MBP. The
Mediterranean descends from this somewhat larger Tethys sea.
At about 180 MBP, in the ;
Italy the Alps, and
Anatolia , moving west, the mountains of
Greece and the islands. The compression and the orogeny continue today, as the ongoing raising of the mountains a small amount each year and the active volcanoes signify.
Just to the north of the Alpine Orogeny were highlands resulting from an earlier orogeny (
Variscan ) along similar lines. These highlands helped to divert the Rhine to the west; however, the Rhine's course is set by the Rhine graben, a rift that opened in the
Eocene and
Oligocene periods between the western
Alps and the central Alps, caused by their moving in slightly different directions. The rift does not seem to be active now.
The watershed of the Rhine reaches into the period, the watershed of the Rhine reached south only to the
Eifel and
Westerwald hills, about 450 km north of the Alps. The Rhine then had the
Sieg as a tributary, but not yet the
Mosel . The northern Alps were drained by the
Donau then.
Through
Stream Capture , the Rhine extended its watershed southward. By the
Pliocene period, the Rhine had captured streams down to the
Vosges mountains, including the Mosel, the
Main , and the
Neckar . The northern Alps were drained by the
Rhône then.
By the early
Pleistocene period, the Rhine had captured most of its current Alpine watershed from the Rhône, including the
Aare . Since that time, the Rhine has added the watershed above
Lake Constance (
Vorderrhein ,
Hinterrhein ,
Alpenrhein ; captured from the Rhône), the upper reaches of the Main (beyond
Schweinfurt ), and the Vosges mountains (captured from the
Meuse ) to its watershed.
The
Pleistocene (~2.5 million years ago - 10,000 years ago) was the geological period of the Ice Ages. Since approximately 600,000 years ago six major Ice Ages occurred, in which sealevel dropped 120 m, and much of the continental margins became exposed. In the Early Pleistocene, the Rhine followed a course to the NW, through the present North Sea. During the so-called Elsterien glaciation (~420,000 yr BP, marine oxygen isotope stage 12) the northern part of the present North Sea was blocked by the ice, and a large lake developed, that overflowed through the English Channel. This caused the Rhine course to be diverted through the English Channel. Since then, during glacial times, the river mouth was located near Brest(France), and rivers like the Thames, and Seine became tributaries to the Rhine. During interglacials, when sealevel rose to approximately the present level, the Rhine built a delta in what is now called The Netherlands.
During the last
Ice Age (~70,000-10,000 yr BP= Before Present), at the end of the
Pleistocene , the lower Rhine flowed roughly west through the Netherlands and then to the southwest, through the English Channel, and finally to the Atlantic Ocean. The English and Irish Channels, the
Baltic Sea and the
North Sea were still dry land, mainly because sea level was approximately 120 m lower than today. At about 5000 BC, flooding and erosion began to open the English Channel.
Most of the Rhine's current course was not under the ice during the last Ice Age, although its source must then have been a glacier. A
Tundra with Ice Age flora and fauna stretched across middle Europe from Asia to the Atlantic Ocean. Such was the case during the
Last Glacial Maximum , ca. 22,000-14,000 yr BP, when ice covered Scandinavia and the Baltic, Britain and the Alps, but left the space between as open tundra. The
Loess , or wind-blown dust over that tundra settled in and around the Rhine Valley, contributing to its current agricultural usefulness.
These events were well within the residence of man. Melt water adding to the ocean and land
Subsidence drowned the former coasts of Europe. The water is still rising, at the rate of about 1-3 mm per year. Further drowning is to come.
Rapid warming and change of vegetation to open forest began about 13,000 BP. By 9000 BP, Europe was fully forested. About 7000-5000 BP a general warming encouraged migration up the
Danube and down the Rhine by peoples to the east, who may also have been encouraged by the sudden massive expansion of the
Black Sea as the Mediterranean burst into it through the
Bosphorus at about 7500 BP. At least one unsuccessful search for remains of villages on the floor of the Black Sea has been conducted.
During the
Middle Palaeolithic , ca 100,000-30,000 BP (the dates vary a geat deal) western Europe, including the Rhine and Danube Valleys, was occupied by
Neanderthal Man , to which belonged the
Mousterian culture of stone tools. Mousterian sites are not considered intrusive. It is believed that the Neanderthals may have evolved from the preceding
Homo Erectus in the vicinity of the glaciers, but the question has by no means been settled definitively.
Neanderthal sites are denser to the south, where open forest prevailed and the limestone terrain offered more caves as dwelling. The Rhine ran through an open tundra, where Neanderthals hunted big game, such as the
Woolly Rhinoceros and the
Mammoth . Accordingly, open air Mousterian sites have been discovered in and around the Rhine valley.
Prior to about 5600 BC, the Rhine Valley, along with most of Europe, was occupied by
Cro-magnon man in the
Mesolithic stage of cultural development; that is, they hunted and gathered, but owned a larger and more specialized tool kit than the
Palaeolithic people, knew more about the plants and animals, and even may have kept a few animals.
During the early
Iron Age , both banks of the Rhine were inhabited by
Celtic Tribes . However, in the beginning of the
Pre-Roman Iron Age , ca
600 BC , the
Proto-Germanic tribes crossed the
Weser River and the
Aller River , and expanded the whole distance to the banks of the Rhine. This expansion is shown archaeologically in the form of the
Jastorf Culture . From ca
500 BC and onwards, the lower Rhine and not the Weser and the Aller would increasingly mark the border between the
Celtic Tribes and the
Germanic Tribes .
The human history of the Rhine begins with the writers of the late '', a long public inscription of
Augustus in which he (or his ghost writer) boasts of his exploits, including sending an expeditionary fleet north of the Rhinemouth to
Jutland , which no Roman had ever done (he says).
Throughout the long history of Rome, the Rhine was considered the border between
Gaul or the
Celts and the Germans, even though the border often was violated, as when the Germanics crossed it and joined with the Celts to form the
Belgae (descending to
Belgium ). Typical of this point of view is a quote from
Maurus Servius Honoratus , ''Commentary on the Aeneid of Vergil'' (On Book 8 Line 727):
:"''(Rhenus) fluvius Galliae, qui Germanos a Gallia dividit''"
:"''(The Rhine is a) river of Gaul, which divides the Germans from Gaul.''"
The Rhine in the earlier sources was always a Gallic river.
As the conflict between Rome and the Germanics grew, the Romans found it necessary to station troops along the Rhine. They kept two army groups there (exercitus), the inferior, or "lower", and the superior, or "upper", which is the first distinction between upper Germany and lower Germany. It originally probably only meant upstream and downstream, the Niederrhein and Oberrhein regions of the map included with this article.
The Romans kept eight legions in five bases along the Rhine. The actual number of legions present at any base or in all depended on whether a state or threat of war existed. Between about 14 AD and 180 AD the assignment of legions was as follows.
For the army of and
XX Valeria (
Pannonian troops); two legions at oppidum Ubiorum ("town of the
Ubii "), which was renamed to Colonia Agrippina, descending to
Cologne . The legions were
V Alaudae , a Celtic legion recruited from
Gallia Transalpina , and
XXI , possibly a
Galatian legion from the other side of the empire.
For the army of
Germania Superior , one legion,
II Augusta , at Argentoratum (
Strasbourg ), and one,
XIII Gemina , at Vindonissa (
Windisch ). Vespasian had commanded II Augusta before his promotion to imperator. In addition were a double legion, XIV and XVI, at Moguntiacum (
Mainz ).
The two originally military districts of
Germania Inferior and
Germania Superior came to influence the surrounding tribes, who later respected the distinction in their alliances and confederations. For example, the upper Germans combined into the
Alemanni . For a time the Rhine ceased to be a border when a union of all the west Germanics, the
Franks , crossed the river and occupied Roman-dominated Celtic
Gaul as far as
Paris .
Subsequently language changes began to play a major political role.
West Germanic dissimilated into
Low German and
High German roughly along the old lines. Perhaps it had been doing so all along.
Charlemagne united all the Franks in the
Holy Roman Empire , but he did not rule over a people of uniform language. After his death the empire split more or less along language lines, with the Low German being spoken in the Netherlands and the High German in what became Germany. The Romanized Franks became the French. The Rhine once again became a political border.
The Rhine as border has been and is a mystical and political symbol. German authors and composers have written reams about it. During World War II, it was still considered the sacred border of Germany, and was still a defensive barrier. The Germans fought especially hard to defend it. The Rhine is closely linked to many important historical events — particularly military ones — in the adjacent states. For example:
- It was a historic object of frontier trouble between France and Germany . Establishing France's " Natural Borders " on the Rhine was a long term goal of French foreign policy since the Middle Ages . French leaders such as Louis XIV and Napoleon Bonaparte tried with varying degrees of success to annex lands west of the Rhine. In 1840 the ''Rhine crisis'' evolved, because the French prime minister Adolphe Thiers started to talk about the Rhine border. In response, the nationalistic song The Watch On The Rhine (Die Wacht am Rhein) was composed at that time and during the Franco-Prussian War it rose to the status of a national anthem in Germany. The song calls for defending the Rhine against France. The song remained popular in World War I .
- At the end of WWI the Rhineland was subject to the Treaty Of Versailles , which created lots of bitterness in Germany, and was one of the many reasons for World War II . The reoccupation of the Rhineland by Nazi Germany increased Hitler's popularity in Germany.
- The Rhine bridge of Remagen became famous in World War II when the Germans failed to demolish the bridge in time and the allied troops were able to establish a Bridgehead - much to their own surprise.
- Mainz Cathedral - Over 1,000-year-old cathedral is seat to the Bishop Of Mainz . Holds significant historic value as seat to the once politically powerful secular prince-archbishop within the Holy Roman Empire . Houses historical funerary monuments and religious artifacts.
- Das Rheingold - The Rhine is one of the settings for the first opera of Richard Wagner 's Ring Cycle . The action of the epic opens and ends underneath the Rhine, where three Rhinemaidens swim and protect a hoard of Gold .
- H.J.A. Berendsen & E. Stouthamer (2001): ''Palaeogeographic development of the Rhine-Meuse delta, The Netherlands''; Koninklijke van Gorcum, Assen; ISBN 9023236955
