The rivers of Europe. The River Rhine is the largest waterway in Western Europe.

Rivers from ancient times were the most important objects in people's lives. They helped to survive by rewarding humanity with food. Also, the rivers were places of worship. The use of waterways has helped (and is helping to this day) quickly and simply enough to get to that or a lot of places. It was much easier for the ancients to build light river ships than to travel overland. One of the largest and most famous waterways of Western Europe is the River Rhine.

The Rhine River is a tributary of the North Sea, it can be found in several European countries: Austria, France, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland. The cradle of it - in the Alps (altitude 2412 m), is formed from two rivers: the Rear Rhine and the Front Rhine. Within the mountains, the River Rhine forms rapids, even waterfalls (the Rhine Falls), the valley of the river is narrow, with steep slopes and turns, stepped. Further flows through Lake Constance and takes the left tributary of Aare. Not far from the city of Koblenz, its waters are replenished by the Moselle tributary. On the territory of the Central European Plain, the channel width is about 5,000 m. Within this section the Rhine takes the right tributary of the Ruhr. A complex delta is formed in the Netherlands (together with the Maas River and the Scheldt River). As the main waterway, the Rhine River canals are connected to major river routes: Danube, Elbe, Marne.

After overcoming Lake Constance, the river breaks into the Jura Mountains, then turns at a right angle to the north - into the Upper Rhine plain. Here the river valley is wide. In its middle reaches, the Rhine River overcomes the Rhine shale massif (the depth is up to 200 meters), here a canyon-type valley forms. The lower part of the flow of the waterway passes through the lowland. Before entering the sea, the river splits into a number of branches, which are mostly fenced with dams. In translation from the ancient Celtic language, the Rhine means "current".

The Rhine is a navigable river for almost 1000 km. It freezes only in severe winters. In the rest of the time it is almost always open to ships. But in 1968 a fire broke out in one of the chemical plants on the Rhine, which caused a terrible ecological catastrophe. A huge number of fish died, some species disappeared completely from the river. After that, a program was adopted to clean the river. Further it is planned to make the Rhine suitable for swimming.

In addition to the Rhine, there are other major rivers in Europe. The largest of them is the Volga. Despite the fact that it occurs on the territory of the Russian Federation (the territory of Eurasia to the Ural Mountains - Europe). According to the photographs of the source of the river, one does not immediately understand that here comes the greatest Russian river. But if we take the familiar "foreign" Europe, then the largest river is the Danube. It flows into the Black Sea, flows on the territory of eight countries. And annually on the Danube transport about 500 million tons of cargo. The fourth (after the Volga, the Danube and the Urals) is a large river is the Dnieper. It originates in the ... swamp Akseninsky moss in the Valdai Upland. The flow is slow and calm. Another famous river of Europe is Elba. It belongs to the North Sea basin. Elba takes its origin in the Czech Republic, mainly in Germany.