The Rhine Valley (German: Rheintal) is a glacial alpine valley, formed by the Alpine Rhine (German: Alpenrhein), i.e. the section of the Rhine River between the confluence of the Anterior Rhine and Posterior Rhine at Reichenau and its mouth at Lake Constance. From Reichenau, the Alpine Rhine flows east, passing Chur and turning north, forms the border between the Canton of St. Gallen of Switzerland on the left (west) side and first Liechtenstein and then Vorarlberg, Austria on the right (east) side. The Swiss-Austrian border follows the historical bed of the Rhine, but today the river follows an artificial canal within Austria for the final five kilometers.
The Rhine Valley extends to about 80 km. Its upper third has the character of an Alpine valley, enclosing a bottom plain of about 1 to 4 kilometers across. Downstream of Vaduz, the valley widens considerably, developing into a broad plain, measuring some 10 km across at its lower end along the southern shores of Lake Constance. From the point of the Rhine's emergence from Lake Constance, it is known as High Rhine.
Tributaries of the Alpine Rhine are the Plessur, Landquart, Ill and Frutz rivers on the right side. It has no major left tributaries; rivulets joining it from the left are Oldisbach at Chur, Cosenz at Untervaz, Säge at Tardisbrücke, Tamina at Bad Ragaz, Tobelbach at Burchs, Simml at Gams.
Famous quotes containing the words rhine and/or valley:
“Ah, there should be a young man, ein schone Junge carrying Blumen, a bouquet of roses. There should be cold Rhine wine and Strauss waltzes, and on the long way home kisses in the shadow of an archway, like a Cinderella.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)
“I will frankly declare, that after passing a few weeks in this valley of the Marquesas, I formed a higher estimate of human nature than I had ever before entertained. But alas! since then I have been one of the crew of a man-of-war, and the pent-up wickedness of five hundred men has nearly overturned all my previous theories.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)