page_title: Rhine
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Rhine / Geography
caption_attribution_description: sections and major affluents of river Rhine, relaunch: Delta corrected, most names with clearer letters
context_page_description: The Rhine is one of the major European rivers, which has its sources in Switzerland and flows in a mostly northerly direction through Germany and the Netherlands, emptying into the North Sea. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps, forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein, Swiss-Austrian, Swiss-German and then the Franco-German border, then flows through the German Rhineland and the Netherlands and eventually empties into the North Sea.
  It is the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe, at about 1,230 km, with an average discharge of about 2,900 m³/s.
  The Rhine and the Danube formed most of the northern inland frontier of the Roman Empire and, since those days, the Rhine has been a vital navigable waterway carrying trade and goods deep inland.
  Its importance as a waterway in the Holy Roman Empire is supported by the many castles and fortifications built along it. In the modern era, it has become a symbol of German nationalism.
  Among the largest and most important cities on the Rhine are Cologne, Düsseldorf, Rotterdam, Strasbourg and Basel.
context_section_description: The length of the Rhine is conventionally measured in "Rhine-kilometers" (Rheinkilometer), a scale introduced in 1939 which runs from the Old Rhine Bridge at Constance (0 km) to Hoek van Holland (1036.20 km).
  The river is significantly shortened from its natural course due to a number of canalisation projects completed in the 19th and 20th century. The "total length of the Rhine", to the inclusion of Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine is more difficult to measure objectively; it was cited as 1,232 kilometres (766 miles) by the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat in 2010.
  Its course is conventionally divided as follows:
  length of the Anterior Rhine (including Rein da Medel)
  Constance to Basel: Rheinkilometer 0–167.
  At the confluence of Aare and Rhine, the Aare at 560 m³/s carries more water on average than the Rhine at 439 m³/s, so that hydrographically speaking the Rhine is a right tributary of the Aare.
  Basel to Bingen: Rheinkilometer 167–529.
  Bingen to Cologne: Rheinkilometer 529–688 (159 km); there is no unambiguous definition of the Middle Rhine, some would prefer to have it begin further upstream, at the mouth of the Main.
  Rheinkilometer 688–865.5 (177.5 km) from Cologne to the Dutch-German border
  the total discharge of the Rhine is subject to significant fluctuations, and average values cited vary between sources; the total discharge taken into account here consists of:
  Maasmond: 1450 m³/s,
  Haringvliet: 820 m³/s,
  Den Oever: 310 m³/s,
  Kornwerderzand: 220 m³/s,
  IJmuiden: 9 m³/s,
  Scheldt–Rhine Canal 10 m³/s
caption: Map of the Rhine (for interactive map click here: Map)
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