page_title: Urft Dam
section_title: Reservoir
hierarchical_section_title: Urft Dam / Reservoir
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Urftstausee im Nationalpark Eifel unterhalb Burg Vogelsang
context_page_description: The Urft Dam is a 58.50 metre high dam in the southwestern part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It was built in 1905. The dam impounds the River Urft in the district of Euskirchen to create the Urft Reservoir, 2.16 km² in area. The reservoir is also called the Urftsee.
  The Urft Dam, which was constructed during the period 1900 to 1905, and the Urft Reservoir, which was then the biggest reservoir in Europe, have belonged since 1993 to the Eifel-Rur Water Board.
context_section_description: The Urft Reservoir (Urftstausee or Urftsee), which when full is 7.85 km long according to the Deutsche Grundkarte map, although the straight-line distance from the head of the lake to the dam is only about 3.9 km), has a total area of 2.16 km² and holds up to 47.75 million cubic metres of water. The River Urft flows through it from east to west. It is located within the district of Euskirchen south of the Kermeter ridge, west-northwest of Gemünd in the borough of Schleiden and slightly below the village of Malsbenden. Places from which the reservoir may be reached are Gemünd and Malsbenden or south through the Kermeter from Heimbach.
  
  At the northwest end of the snaking waters of the Urft Reservoir and just below the Urft Dam is the Obersee lake, which acts as the main pre-basin for the Rur Reservoir and in which both the Rur and the Urft are impounded. In the Urft Reservoir (322.5 m above sea level (NN)), which is surrounded by wooded countryside, lies the island of Krummenauel (max 339.6 m above NN). The peninsulas at Altenberg (Auf dem Altenberg; max. 351.5 m above NN), Neffgesberg (max 370 m above NN) and Hosterauel (max 366.7 m above NN) jut out into the lake. They can also be reached on foot depending on the water level.
caption: Urft Reservoir below the Nazi fort of Vogelsang
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