Ill (France)

The IllIn uppercase, to avoid ambiguity, ILL. is a river in France. It flows through the plain of Alsace. It is an important left tributary of the Rhine river. It is the main river of Alsace. It flows through the Haut-Rhin and the Bas-Rhin departments in the Grand Est region.

Geography
The Ill river is  long. Its drainage basin has an area of .

Course
The Ill starts in the northern side of the Glaserberg mountain, in the Jura Mountains near the Swiss border, in the commune of Winkel, (Haut-Rhin department), at an altitude of about . From here, the Ill flows first to the east to Ferrette and to Illfurth where it is joined by the Largue river, the main right tributary of the Ill.

From Illfurth, the Ill runs northward through Alsace, flowing parallel to the Rhine river. 

The Ill river flows within the Grand Est region, 2 departments and 70 communes. It flows through the following communes, among others:
 Haut-Rhin : Illfurth, Frœningen, Hochstatt, Zillisheim, Brunstatt-Didenheim, Mulhouse, Bourtzwiller, Illzach, Sausheim, Ruelisheim, Ensisheim, réguisheim, Meyenheim, Oberentzen, Niederentzen, Biltzheim, Oberhergheim, Niederhergheim, Sainte-Croix-en-Plaine, Logelheim, Sundhoffen, Andolsheim, Horbourg-Wihr, Colmar, Illhaeusern
 Bas-Rhin : Sélestat, Ebersmunster, Kogenheim, Sermersheim, Huttenheim, Benfeld, Matzenheim, Osthouse, Erstein, Nordhouse, Hipsheim, Eschau, Illkirch-Graffenstaden, Ostwald, Strasbourg, Offendorf

Five communes in the Alsace have their names from the riverː
 Bas-Rhin
 Illkirch ("the church of the Ill")
 Haut-Rhin
 Illfurth ("a place to cross the Ill")
 Illtal ("the valley of the Ill")
 Illhaeusern ("the village of the Ill")
 Illzach

Finally, the Ill river flows into the Rhine river in the commune of Offendorf, just to the north of Strasbourg.

Main tributaries
The main tributaries of the Ill river are all left tributaries; the right tributaries are very short streams. Only the Largue starts in the Jura Mountains; the rest have their sources in the Vosgues mountains, to the east.

 Largue - 
 Doller - 
 Thur - 
 Lauch - 
 Fecht - 
 Giessen - 
 Andlau - 
 Ehn - 
 Bruche - 

 Hydrology 
Its average yearly discharge (volume of water which passes through a section of the river per unit of time) is  at Strasbourg in the Bas-Rhin department, for the period 1974 - 2017.

Average monthly discharge (m3/s) at Strasbourg (1974 - 2017)

 Gallery 

Related pages
 List of rivers of France

 Notes 

References

Category:Rivers of Grand Est