Rhine

Effectively a localized broadening of the River Rhine, which separates Germany from Switzerland, Lake Constance is a popular tourist centre. Its major resort, the historic town of Constance (Konstanz), is to some extent an enclave of Germany surrounded by Switzerland, and lies on the southwestern shore of the lake.

European river rising in Switzerland and reaching the North Sea via Germany and the Netherlands; length 1,320 km/820 mi. It drains an area of some 220,000 sq km/85,000 sq mi and is navigable for 805 km/500 mi. Tributaries include the Moselle and the Ruhr. The Rhine is linked with the Mediterranean by the Rhine-Rhône Waterway, and with the Black Sea by the Rhine-Main-Danube Waterway.

The river was severely polluted by a chemical factory fire in 1986, as a result of which 30 tonnes of pesticides entered the river, rendering it lifeless for 100-200 km/60-120 mi. The governments of the five countries through which the Rhine flows announced a major clean-up campaign in 1987, which greatly improved the pollution problem. Severe flooding took place in the Netherlands and Germany in December 1993 and January 1995.

The Lorelei is a rock in the Rhine-Palatinate, with a remarkable echo; the German poet Clemens Brentano gave currency to the legend of a siren who lured sailors to their death with her song, also the subject of a poem by Heinrich Heine.

Swiss Rhine The Rhine rises in two headstreams called the Vorderrhein and the Hinterrhein (and other glacial streamlets), in the Swiss canton of Grisons. It runs northwest forming for part of its course the border between Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Austria, through Lake Constance, and over the falls at Schaffhausen. In this part of its course it separates Germany (on the north) from Switzerland (on the south).

German Rhine After Basel, it turns north through a wide valley, to Mainz; flowing at first between Alsace-Lorraine in France, and Baden-Württemberg in Germany, and later between the German Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate (on the left bank), and Baden-Württemberg and Hesse (on the right bank). From Mainz it flows west to Bingen and then generally northwest past Koblenz to Bonn. The stretch of the river between Bingen and Bonn is full of legends such as the Lorelei and Nibelungs stories, with woods, vineyards, and Gothic castles on its banks. From Bonn the river flows past Cologne, Düsseldorf , and Duisburg, and enters the Netherlands northwest of Emmerich. It is joined by the Moselle at Koblenz, and by the Ruhr at Duisburg; other important confluents in this part of its course are the Nahe, which joins it at Bingen, and the Lahn.

Dutch Rhine On entering the Netherlands the Rhine begins to divide into several branches, forming a great delta. Of the main two branches, the North or Neder Rijn, was formerly the main stream; from it the Ijssel branches off at Arnhem, and the Oude Rijn at Wijk. Its westward extension is called the Lek. The second of the main branches of the Rhine, the southern and main stream, is the Waal (known downstream as the Merwede).

Navigation The Rhine is the major navigable waterway of Western Europe. Over 110 million tonnes of traffic cross the Dutch frontier annually. The main traffic is iron ore being moved from Rotterdam to the Ruhr. Other major upstream cargoes are refined petrol, coal, and grain. Downstream traffic at the frontier is dominated by sand and gravel, and steel products. Sea-going traffic (1.8 million tonnes) is important as far as Cologne. The volume of traffic drops considerably south of Cologne, falling to 8.6 million tonnes at Basel. The upper Rhine is more costly to navigate, and in recent years the water levels have been so low that barges could not carry full loads. A new type of barge transport on the Rhine is the push barge where the motor unit is separate from the barge and it hitched onto up to six lighters. Tourist traffic is important in the gorge section between Bingen and Bonn.