60 Fun Facts About Rhine

The Rhine empties into which sea?

After running north through Germany it swings west across the Netherlands to the delta around Rotterdam.

The Rhine begins in which Swiss canton?

Its two headstreams, the Anterior and Posterior Rhine, meet at Reichenau to form the Alpine Rhine.

Roughly how long is the Rhine?

That makes it the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe after the Danube, draining 185,000 square kilometres.

The Rhine's name derives from Rēnos, a word from which ancient language?

It comes from a root meaning 'to flow', shared with Italy's river Reno; the 'Rh' spelling is a Greek habit.

Which lake, source of the Anterior Rhine near the Oberalp Pass, is usually named the Rhine's source?

It sits at 2,345 metres; the Posterior Rhine starts from the Paradies Glacier below the Rheinwaldhorn.

Where do the Anterior and Posterior Rhine join to form the Alpine Rhine?

From there it forms Switzerland's border with Liechtenstein and then Austria before reaching the big lake.

Which tiny country's border with Switzerland is formed by the Alpine Rhine?

Downstream it also separates Switzerland from Austria before entering the Bodensee on Austrian soil.

The Rhine flows through which large body of water shared by Germany, Switzerland and Austria?

The lake has three parts: the Obersee, the Untersee and a connecting 4 km stretch called the Seerhein.

What are the dimensions of the Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen?

They are the most powerful waterfall in Europe, formed 14,000 to 17,000 years ago in the last ice age.

Which tributary, joining near Koblenz in the canton of Aargau, more than doubles the Rhine's flow?

It brings water from the Finsteraarhorn, the highest point of the whole Rhine basin at 4,274 metres.

At which city does the 'Rhine knee' turn the river from flowing west to flowing north?

The bend, entirely in Swiss territory, marks the boundary between the High Rhine and the Upper Rhine.

Which engineer is credited with 'domesticating' the Upper Rhine by straightening it in the 19th century?

His works cut floods and malarial bogs, though one stretch turned into rapids where the river ate down to bare rock.

Which French city on the Upper Rhine is the seat of the European Parliament?

It also hosts the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, and the Rhine tributary Ill runs through it.

Which two French departments in Alsace are named after the Rhine?

Germany has two states named for it too: North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.

Which river joins the Rhine opposite Mainz?

The Neckar joins at Mannheim and the Ill below Strasbourg; the Moselle arrives further down at Koblenz.

The Rhine Gorge between Rüdesheim and Koblenz was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in which year?

The 65 km 'Romantic Rhine' has roughly 40 hilltop castles, many ruined in the Thirty Years' War.

How tall is the Lorelei, the slate rock at Sankt Goarshausen famed for its siren legend?

Shipwrecks there have been recorded since the 10th century; the name may mean 'murmuring rock' after the echo.

Which of the 40 hill castles between Bingen and Koblenz was never destroyed or left to decay?

It stands above Braubach and was first mentioned in 1231; Maus Castle is the only other never destroyed.

Pfalzgrafenstein Castle sits on an island in the Rhine near Kaub. What was it built for in 1327?

Tolls were collected until 1867; in 1814 Russian and Prussian forces used it to cross the river against Napoleon.

The Deutsches Eck in Koblenz is the promontory where which river joins the Rhine?

It is named after a Teutonic Order commandry and carries a huge equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I, rebuilt in 1993.

Koblenz began as a Roman military post founded around 8 BC by whom?

Its name comes from the Latin Confluentes, 'the merging rivers'.

At which city, where the Sieg flows in, does the Rhine leave the gorge and become the Lower Rhine?

From here it drops from 50 to 12 metres above sea level across the North German Plain.

Cologne Cathedral, on the Rhine, was begun in 1248 and finished to its medieval plan in which year?

At 157 metres it was then the tallest building in the world, after 632 years of construction; it is still the world's tallest twin-spired church.

Which Rhine city hosts Europe's largest inland port?

Duisport sits where the Ruhr meets the Rhine and feeds the sea ports of Rotterdam, Antwerp and Amsterdam.

The Rhine-Ruhr region, which the Lower Rhine flows through, is what?

Cologne, Düsseldorf and the Ruhr cities line its banks, and most of the river's factories are here.

Which Dutch distributary carries about 65 percent of the Rhine's water?

It flows about 80 km past Nijmegen towards Rotterdam; the IJssel takes only a ninth of the flow north to the IJsselmeer.

The IJssel branch of the Rhine flows north into which body of water?

Until the Afsluitdijk closed it in 1932, that inland lake was the tidal Zuiderzee.

The Old Rhine (Oude Rijn) reaches the North Sea through a sluice at which Dutch town?

This branch once marked the line of the Roman frontier, the Limes Germanicus.

About 11,000 years ago, where was the Rhine's estuary?

Dry land called Doggerland still linked Europe to Britain across the southern North Sea until about 9,000 years ago.

Which port overtook Rotterdam in 2004 as the world's busiest by cargo tonnage?

It remains Europe's largest seaport and the biggest outside Asia.

Together with the Danube, the Rhine formed much of the northern inland frontier of which ancient power?

The Limes Germanicus ran from the Rhine's North Sea mouth to Regensburg on the Danube, plugging the gap between the rivers with palisades and forts.

The Limes Germanicus stretched from the Rhine's mouth to which town on the Danube?

Between Mainz on the Rhine and there, the empire had to build a manned barrier instead of relying on the rivers.

In the Nibelungenlied, Siegfried kills a dragon on the 'dragon's rock' in the Siebengebirge, near which Rhine city?

The Burgundian court in the poem sits at Worms, and Kriemhild's treasure ends up sunk in the Rhine.

The Nibelungenlied, written around 1200, is set largely at the Burgundian court in which Rhine city?

Prince Siegfried comes there to win Kriemhild, sister of King Gunther, and is later murdered by Hagen.

In Wagner's Ring cycle, the dwarf Alberich forges his ring from what?

Das Rheingold opened the first complete cycle at Bayreuth on 13 August 1876.

Which white grape, Germany's most planted, is believed to have originated in the Rhine Valley?

By 2015 it covered 23 percent of German vineyards; the Rheingau grows a higher share of it than any other region.

Legend says which emperor had the first Rheingau vineyards planted near today's Schloss Johannisberg?

Better documented is the role of Eberbach Abbey, which controlled Rheingau winemaking for centuries.

The patriotic song 'Die Wacht am Rhein' was written by Max Schneckenburger in response to what?

French premier Adolphe Thiers had claimed the Rhine as France's 'natural eastern border'; the tune came from Karl Wilhelm in 1854.

Prussia reorganised the Rhineland as what in 1822?

That naming tradition survives in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.

US troops captured the Ludendorff Bridge across the Rhine on 7 March 1945 at which town?

It was one of the few Rhine bridges still standing; the 1969 film The Bridge at Remagen dramatised the fight.

What happened to the Ludendorff Bridge ten days after its capture?

German attempts to destroy it had failed, but the damaged span finally gave way on 17 March 1945.

Which field marshal commanded Operation Plunder, the Allied Rhine crossing of 23 March 1945?

The crossings at Rees and Wesel were backed by a 5,000-gun barrage and the Operation Varsity airborne drop.

The 1986 Sandoz chemical fire near Basel killed much of the Rhine's population of which animal?

A former US intelligence official later claimed the KGB had ordered the Stasi to sabotage the plant.

The Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, completed in 1992, runs from Bamberg to which town on the Danube?

The 171 km canal makes it possible to sail from Rotterdam to the Black Sea; Charlemagne tried the same idea in 793 with the Fossa Carolina.

The 25,000 sq km Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt system at the river's mouth is Europe's largest what?

Its ports include Rotterdam, Antwerp, Amsterdam and Ghent.

Distances along the Rhine are measured in 'Rhine-kilometres', a scale introduced in which year?

The zero point is the old bridge in the centre of Konstanz.

Basel, the first big city on the Rhine, is home to which of Switzerland's institutions, founded in 1460?

The city sheltered Erasmus and the Holbeins and later became a pharmaceutical centre.

Mainz, on the left bank of the Rhine, is the capital of which German state?

The parts of the city on the right bank were handed to Hesse by the occupying powers in 1945.

Which Rhine hill with a ruined castle did Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage make an international attraction?

The 321-metre hill stands between Königswinter and Bad Honnef in the Siebengebirge.

What is the Rhine's average discharge at its mouth, roughly?

The Aare alone supplies more than a fifth of the water reaching the Dutch border.

Why was the Alpine Rhine diverted into a canal in Austria before entering the Bodensee?

The cut-off Alter Rhein became a swamp, later made navigable to the Swiss town of Rheineck; most of the delta was turned into a bird sanctuary.

In which city is the 0 km datum of the river-kilometre scale introduced in 1939?

The scale runs from the western end of Lake Constance to the Hook of Holland at 1,036.20 km.

The Posterior Rhine starts from which ice field near the Rheinwaldhorn?

It then runs through the Rofla and Viamala gorges before meeting the Anterior Rhine at Reichenau.

Roughly how wide is the Upper Rhine Plain that the river crosses north of Basel?

The plain is about 300 km long, and a 19th-century straightening programme lowered the water table sharply.

At which village does the Rhine cross from Germany into the Netherlands, reaching its widest point?

Soon afterwards it splits into the Waal, the Nederrijn and the IJssel.

The Rhine first splits into the Waal and the Pannerdens Kanaal near which Dutch village?

The Pannerdens Kanaal becomes the Nederrijn at Angeren, and the IJssel branches off near Arnhem.

Which 1421 disaster reshaped the Meuse's course and the Rhine delta's coastline?

From 1421 to 1904 the Meuse and Waal merged at Gorinchem to form the Merwede.

The IJsselmeer, which the IJssel branch of the Rhine feeds, became a freshwater lake in which year?

It was formerly the brackish Zuider Zee; the IJssel carries about one ninth of the Rhine's flow into it.

Which Roman legionary base on the Rhine became Strasbourg?

Legion II Augusta, once commanded by the future emperor Vespasian, was stationed there.

Which Greek historian, according to the article, had no knowledge of the Rhine?

The river only enters recorded history in 1st-century BC Roman geography, as the line between Gaul and Germania.