Elster Valley 
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Länder: Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia
The 247km/153mi long Weisse (White) Elster, a right-bank tributary of the Saale, rises on the western edge of the Elstergebirge, in the frontier area between Germany and the former Czechoslovakia. In its upper course, at heights above 450 m/1,475ft, it receives numerous tributaries from the upper Vogtland. At Wünschendorf, the "gateway of the Vogtland", the river emerges from the hills at a height of 200 m/650ft. It then flows through the foreland area between Gera and Zeitz and continues through the Leipzig lowlands to join the Saale above Halle. Around Leipzig open-cast lignite mining has made some diversions of the river necessary.
Pirk Dam
On the upper Elster, depending on geological conditions, narrow stretches of valley alternate with wider ones. Between Bad Elster and Oelsnitz, center of the Vogtland carpet-making industry, there is room for the road and the railroad to run together down the valley, but below the Pirk Dam, at the bend in the river near Weischlitz, the valley narrows sharply.
The 247km/153mi long Weisse (White) Elster, a right-bank tributary of the Saale, rises on the western edge of the Elstergebirge, in the frontier area between Germany and the former Czechoslovakia. In its upper course, at heights above 450 m/1,475ft, it receives numerous tributaries from the upper Vogtland. At Wünschendorf, the "gateway of the Vogtland", the river emerges from the hills at a height of 200 m/650ft. It then flows through the foreland area between Gera and Zeitz and continues through the Leipzig lowlands to join the Saale above Halle. Around Leipzig open-cast lignite mining has made some diversions of the river necessary.
Pirk Dam
On the upper Elster, depending on geological conditions, narrow stretches of valley alternate with wider ones. Between Bad Elster and Oelsnitz, center of the Vogtland carpet-making industry, there is room for the road and the railroad to run together down the valley, but below the Pirk Dam, at the bend in the river near Weischlitz, the valley narrows sharply.
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