ELBE RIVER


Meaning of ELBE RIVER in English

The Elbe, Oder, and Vistula river basins and their drainage network. Czech Labe, one of the major waterways of central Europe. It runs from the Czech Republic through Germany to the North Sea, flowing generally to the northwest. The river rises on the southern side of the Krkonoe (Giant) Mountains near the border of the Czech Republic and Poland. It then makes a wide arc across Bohemia (northwestern Czech Republic) and enters eastern Germany about 25 miles (40 kilometres) southeast of Dresden. For the remainder of its course it flows through Germany. Above Hamburg the Elbe splits into two branches; these rejoin farther downstream, and the river then broadens into its estuary, the mouth of which is at Cuxhaven, where it flows into the North Sea. The total length of the Elbe is 724 miles (1,165 kilometres), of which roughly one-third flows through the Czech Republic and two-thirds through Germany. Its total drainage area is 55,620 square miles (144,060 square kilometres). Major tributaries are the Vltava (Moldau), Ohre (Eger), Mulde, and Saale rivers, all of which join it from the left, and the Iser, Schwarze (Black) Elster, Havel, and Alster rivers from the right. Czech Labe river of central Europe and one of the continent's major waterways. It rises in the Krkonoe (Giant) Mountains on the border of the Czech Republic and Poland and flows south and west in a wide arc across Bohemia. It then flows northwest across Germany and empties into the North Sea near Cuxhaven. The following article is a brief treatment of the Elbe River. For full treatment, see Europe: Elbe River. From 1945 to 1990 the Elbe River formed part of the boundary between East and West Germany. It is 724 miles (1,165 km) long, in places as wide as 9 miles (14 km), and has an average annual discharge of 25,074 cubic feet (710 cubic metres) per second. Its major left-bank tributaries are the Vltava (Moldau), Ohre (Eger), and Mulde, and its right-bank tributaries are the Iser, Black Elster, Havel, and Alster. The Elbe is connected by the Elbe-Lbeck Canal with the Baltic Sea, by the Elbe-Havel Canal with the Havel River and Berlin, and by the Mittelland Canal with the Ruhr industrial region and the Rhine River; the canal network is an important transport route for exports. The 55,620-square-mile (144,060-square-kilometre) drainage basin of the Elbe contains some of Germany's most important agricultural and industrial areas. The river is navigable for 1,000-ton barges as far upstream as Prague through the Vltava. The principal cities on the Elbe are Dresden, Wittenberg, Magdeburg, Hamburg, and Cuxhaven in Germany. Hamburg, located 55 miles (88 km) upstream from the mouth of the river, is one of the largest seaports on the continent of Europe. Additional reading Materials in English on the Elbe River are scarce. Two brief works on the Elbe are K. Schmidt, Hydrological Structure of the Federal Republic of Germany, in Hans-Jrgen Klink and Herbert Liedtke (ed.), Physical Geography in the Federal Republic of Germany (1984), pp. 3139; and G. Luttig and K.-D. Meyer, Geological History of the River Elbe, Mainly of Its Lower Course, in P. Macar (ed.), L'volution Quaternaire des bassins fluviaux de la mer Nord mridionale (1974), pp. 119. The Elbe's regime is discussed in FrankDieter Grimm, Das Abflussverhalten in Europa, Typen und regionale Gliederung, Wissenschaftliche Verffentlichungen des Deutschen Instituts fr Lnderkunde, 25/26:18180 (1968). A.C. Semmler (ed.), Der Elbstrom, von seinem Ursprunge bis zu seiner Mndung in die Nordsee (1845, reprinted 1984), is a comprehensive work. Frankdieter Grimm

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