Rhine River

(Local Name: Rhein / Rhin / Reno / Rijn) Cantons: Grisons (GR), St Gallen (SG), Thurgau (TG), Schaffhausen (SH), Zurich (ZH), Aargau (AG), Basel-Land (BL) and Basel-Stadt (BS).

The Rhine (a name probably of Celtic origin: Latin Rhenus, German Rhein, French Rhin, Romansch Reno, Dutch Rijn) is Europe's most beautiful river and most important waterway. The first 375km/233mi of its total length of 1,320km/820mi are in Switzerland. Its source is in the eastern part of the St Gotthard massif, from which the two principal arms of the river flow separately westward for the first 60km/37mi.

The Vorderrhein flows out of the Tomasee (2,345 m/7,694ft), at the foot of Mt Badus (2,928 m/9,607ft). The Hinterrhein originates in the névé of the Rheinwaldhorn (3,402 m/11,116ft). (10km/6mi west of Chur, at Reichenau, the two streams join to form the Alpenrhein (Alpine Rhine), which flows north into Lake Constance. Emerging from the west end of the lake, the river plunges over the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen and, as the Hochrhein (High Rhine) continues west to Basle. In its passage through Switzerland to this point the Rhine drains two-thirds of the country's total area, including 548 sq. km/212 sq. mi of glaciers. At Basle the river leaves Switzerland, with an average flow of 1,027 cu. m/36,263 cu. ft of water per second, and turns north, flowing through the Rhenish Uplands as the Middle Rhine. Below Bonn it is known as the Lower Rhine. In Holland it splits up into a number of arms which flow into the North Sea.

For the convenience of visitors coming from the west, the driving tours described along the Rhine valley are described from west to east, going upstream.