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119-761: It is situated just above the Rhine valley. Together with the Drachenfels directly opposite, the Rodderberg narrows the Rhine valley. This gorge portion is the southern limit of the lowland-bay of Cologne. The Rodderberg offers views to the Siebengebirge , the Rhine valley and up to the Cologne Cathedral , about 50 km away. The Rodderberg detonated in a phreatomagmatic eruption about 250,000 years ago. This happened when

238-470: A "bitter river" ( Oceanus ), with seven islands arranged around it so as to form a seven-pointed star. The accompanying text mentions seven outer regions beyond the encircling ocean. The descriptions of five of them have survived. In contrast to the Imago Mundi , an earlier Babylonian world map dating back to the 9th century BC depicted Babylon as being further north from the center of the world, though it

357-462: A 'Ba Jun Tu Jing' ('Map of Sichuan'), which had been made much earlier in 150. The Shui Jing ( Waterways Classic ) was written anonymously in the 3rd century during the Three Kingdoms era (attributed often to Guo Pu ), and gave a description of some 137 rivers found throughout China. In the 6th century, the book was expanded to forty times its original size by the geographers Li Daoyuan , given

476-600: A carefully structured picture of the cosmos. He corrects his sources and writes more scientifically, whereas Basil's Hexaemeron is theological in style. Karl Müller has collected and printed several anonymous works of geography from this era, including the Expositio totius mundi . In the latter 7th century, adherents of the new religion of Islam surged northward out of Arabia taking over lands in which Jews , Byzantine Christians and Persian Zoroastrians had been established for centuries. There, carefully preserved in

595-584: A chain of islands, that joined Cyprus , Crete, Sicily and later perhaps Sardinia , Corsica and the Balearics to Africa). The oldest known world maps date back to ancient Babylon from the 9th century BC. The best known Babylonian world map, however, is the Imago Mundi of 600 BC. The map as reconstructed by Eckhard Unger shows Babylon on the Euphrates , surrounded by a circular landmass showing Assyria , Urartu and several cities, in turn surrounded by

714-579: A clear picture of the status of geographical knowledge of the time. Pliny the Elder 's (AD 23 – 79) Natural History also has sections on geography. A century after Strabo Ptolemy (AD 90 – 168) launched a similar undertaking. By this time the Roman Empire had expanded through much of Europe, and previously unknown areas such as the British Isles had been explored. The Silk Road was also in operation, and for

833-462: A department of the Roman government devoted to transportation, employed full-time gromatici ( surveyors ). The surveyors' job was to gather topographical information and then to determine the straightest possible route where a road might be built. Instruments and principles used included sun dials for determining direction, theodolites for measuring horizontal angles, and triangulation without which

952-509: A distinct academic discipline. 'Geography' derives from the Greek γεωγραφία – geographia , literally "Earth-writing", that is, description or writing about the Earth. The first person to use the word geography was Eratosthenes (276–194 BC). However, there is evidence for recognizable practices of geography, such as cartography , prior to the use of the term. The known world of Ancient Egypt saw

1071-413: A domestication that served goals such as reducing stagnant bogs that fostered waterborne diseases, making regions more habitable for human settlement, and reduce high frequency of floods. Not long before Tulla went to work on widening and straightening the river, heavy floods caused significant loss of life. Four diplomatic treaties were signed among German state governments and French regions dealing with

1190-556: A geographical section, which was often an enormous compilation of changes in place-names and local administrative divisions controlled by the ruling dynasty, descriptions of mountain ranges, river systems, taxable products, etc. The ancient Chinese historian Ban Gu (32–92) most likely started the trend of the gazetteer in China, which became prominent in the Northern and Southern dynasties period and Sui dynasty . Local gazetteers would feature

1309-552: A globe. This has been debated widely as being dismissive of the extensive Native American history that predated the 16th-century invasion, in the sense that the implication of a "birth certificate" implies a blank history prior. Geography as a science experiences excitement and exerts influence during the Scientific revolution and Reformation . In the Victorian period, the oversea exploration gave it institutional identity and geography

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1428-465: A late 10th-century Persian geographer, accompanied a book of geographical coordinates with instructions for making a rectangular world map, with equirectangular projection or cylindrical equidistant projection. In the early 11th century, Avicenna hypothesized on the geological causes of mountains in The Book of Healing (1027). In mathematical geography, Persian Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī , around 1025,

1547-526: A mention of India. The description of Africa as a whole are contentious, with Herodotus describing the land surrounded by a sea. Though he described the Phoenicians as having circumnavigated Africa in the 6th century BC, through much of later European history the Indian Ocean was thought to be an inland sea, the southern part of Africa wrapping around in the south to connect with the eastern part of Asia. This

1666-656: A predominantly westerly direction and flows into the Netherlands where it eventually empties into the North Sea . It drains an area of 9,973 km . Its name derives from the Celtic Rēnos . There are two German states named after the river, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate , in addition to several districts (e.g. Rhein-Sieg ). The departments of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin in Alsace (France) are also named after

1785-604: A range of geographical and statistical information about the various regions of India. The composers of the Puranas divided the known world into seven continents of dwipas, Jambu Dwipa, Krauncha Dwipa, Kusha Dwipa, Plaksha Dwipa, Pushkara Dwipa, Shaka Dwipa and Shalmali Dwipa. Descriptions were provided for the climate and geography of each of the dwipas. The Vishnudharmottara Purana (compiled between 300 and 350 AD) contains six chapters on physical and human geography. The locational attributes of peoples and places, and various seasons are

1904-508: A region far from where bamboo was suitable to grow. The 14th-century Yuan dynasty geographer Na-xin wrote a treatise of archeological topography of all the regions north of the Yellow River, in his book He Shuo Fang Gu Ji . The Ming dynasty geographer Xu Xiake (1587–1641) traveled throughout the provinces of China (often on foot) to write his enormous geographical and topographical treatise, documenting various details of his travels, such as

2023-461: A state of affairs that would persist until the 13th century. The earliest extant maps found in archeological sites of China date to the 4th century BC and were made in the ancient State of Qin . The earliest known reference to the application of a geometric grid and mathematically graduated scale to a map was contained in the writings of the cartographer Pei Xiu (224–271). From the 1st century AD onwards, official Chinese historical texts contained

2142-513: A temperate belt suitable for human habitation. These theories clashed with the evidence of explorers, however, Hanno the Navigator had traveled as far south as Sierra Leone , and Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II of Africa is related by Herodotus and others as having commissioned a successful circumnavigation of Africa by Phoenician sailors. While they were sailing west around the Southern tip of Africa, it

2261-454: A vast amount of scholarship has gone into trying to link Ptolemaic descriptions to known locations. It was the Romans who made far more extensive practical use of geography and maps. The Roman transportation system , consisting of 55,000 miles (89,000 km) of roads, could not have been designed without the use of geographical systems of measurement and triangulation . The cursus publicus ,

2380-571: A waterway in the Holy Roman Empire . Among the largest and most important cities on the Rhine are Cologne , Rotterdam , Düsseldorf , Duisburg , Strasbourg , Arnhem , and Basel . The variants of the name of the Rhine (Latin Rhenus; French Rhin, Italian Reno, Romansh Rain or Rein, Dutch Rijn, Alemannic Ry, Ripuarian Rhing) in modern languages are all derived from the Gaulish name Rēnos , which

2499-515: A wealth of geographic information, although its cartographic aspects were not as highly professional as the maps created by professional cartographers. From the time of the 5th century BC Shu Jing forward, Chinese geographical writing provided more concrete information and less legendary element. This example can be seen in the 4th chapter of the Huainanzi (Book of the Master of Huainan), compiled under

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2618-613: A wealth of geographical information. Chinese geographers such as Jia Dan (730–805) wrote accurate descriptions of places far abroad. In his work written between 785 and 805, he described the sea route going into the mouth of the Persian Gulf , and that the medieval Iranians (whom he called the people of the Luo-He-Yi country, i.e. Persia ) had erected 'ornamental pillars' in the sea that acted as lighthouse beacons for ships that might go astray. Confirming Jia's reports about lighthouses in

2737-722: Is a Central German development of the early modern period , with the Alemannic name R(n) keeping the older vocalism. In Alemannic, the deletion of the ending -n in pausa is a recent development; the form Rn is largely preserved in Lucernese dialects. Rhing in Ripuarian is diphthongized, as is Rhei, Rhoi in Palatine . While Spanish has adopted the Germanic vocalism Rin- , Italian, Occitan, and Portuguese have retained

2856-600: Is a popular misconception that they thought the world was flat), and the simple T and O map became the standard depiction of the world. The trips of Venetian explorer Marco Polo throughout Mongol Empire in the 13th century, the Christian Crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries, and the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of exploration during the 15th and 16th centuries opened up new horizons and stimulated geographic writings. The Mongols also had wide-ranging knowledge of

2975-707: Is currently kept in South Korea. See also: Maps of the Yuan Dynasty During the 15th century, Henry the Navigator of Portugal supported explorations of the African coast and became a leader in the promotion of geographic studies. Among the most notable accounts of voyages and discoveries published during the 16th century were those by Giambattista Ramusio in Venice, by Richard Hakluyt in England, and by Theodore de Bry in what

3094-549: Is not certain what that center was supposed to represent. The ancient Greeks viewed Homer as the founder of geography. His works the Iliad and the Odyssey are works of literature, but both contain a great deal of geographical information. Homer describes a circular world ringed by a single massive ocean. The works show that the Greeks by the 8th century BC had considerable knowledge of

3213-448: Is now Belgium. Following the journeys of Marco Polo , interest in geography spread throughout Europe. From around c. 1400, the writings of Ptolemy and his successors provided a systematic framework to tie together and portray geographical information. This framework was used by academics for centuries to come, the positives being the lead-up to the geographical enlightenment, however, women and indigenous writings were largely excluded from

3332-560: Is of enormous value, providing well-referenced geographical and other information about ancient Greece . The geographer Hierocles (6th century) authored the Synecdemus (prior to AD 535) in which he provides a table of administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire and lists the cities in each. The Synecdemus and the Ethnica were the principal sources of Constantine VII 's work on

3451-746: Is one of the major European rivers . The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps . It forms the Swiss-Liechtenstein border and partly the Swiss-Austrian and Swiss-German borders. After that the Rhine defines much of the Franco-German border , after which it flows in a mostly northerly direction through the German Rhineland . Finally in Germany, the Rhine turns into

3570-582: Is significantly shortened from its natural course due to a number of canal projects completed in the 19th and 20th century. The "total length of the Rhine", to the inclusion of Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine is more difficult to measure objectively; it was cited as 1,232 kilometers (766 miles) by the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat in 2010. Its course is conventionally divided as follows: The Rhine carries its name without distinctive accessories only from

3689-750: Is sometimes called Rhinesee ("Lake Rhine"). Besides the Seerhein , the Radolfzeller Aach is the main tributary of Untersee . It adds large amounts of water from the Danube system to the Untersee via the Danube Sinkhole . Reichenau Island was formed at the same time as the Seerhein, when the water level fell to its current level. Lake Untersee is part of the border between Switzerland and Germany , with Germany on

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3808-628: Is the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe (after the Danube ), at about 1,230 km (760 mi), with an average discharge of about 2,900 m /s (100,000 cu ft/s). The Rhine and the Danube comprised much of the Roman Empire 's northern inland boundary , and the Rhine has been a vital navigable waterway bringing trade and goods deep inland since those days. The various castles and defenses built along it attest to its prominence as

3927-518: The Aare . The Aare more than doubles the Rhine's water discharge, to an average of slightly more than 1,000 m /s (35,000 cu ft/s), and provides more than a fifth of the discharge at the Dutch border. The Aare also contains the waters from the 4,274 m (14,022 ft) summit of Finsteraarhorn , the highest point of the Rhine basin . Between Eglisau and Basel , the vast majority of its length,

4046-639: The Anterior Rhine and the Posterior Rhine join and form the Alpine Rhine. The river makes a distinctive turn to the north near Chur . This section is nearly 86 km long, and descends from a height of 599 meters to 396 meters. It flows through a wide glacial Alpine valley known as the Rhine Valley ( German : Rheintal ). Near Sargan a natural dam, only a few meters high, prevents it from flowing into

4165-775: The Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire . Cosmas Indicopleustes , (6th century) also known as "Cosmas the Monk", was an Alexandrian merchant . By the records of his travels, he seems to have visited India, Sri Lanka , the Kingdom of Axum in modern Ethiopia , and Eritrea . Included in his work Christian Topography were some of the earliest world maps . Though Cosmas believed the earth to be flat, most Christian geographers of his time disagreed with him. Syrian bishop Jacob of Edessa (633–708) adapted scientific material sourced from Aristotle , Theophrastus , Ptolemy and Basil to develop

4284-778: The Neckar in Mannheim and the Main across from Mainz. In Mainz, the Rhine leaves the Upper Rhine Valley and flows through the Mainz Basin. The southern half of the Upper Rhine forms the border between France ( Alsace ) and Germany (Baden-Württemberg). The northern part forms the border between the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate in the west on the one hand, and Baden-Württemberg and Hesse on

4403-641: The Nile as the center, and the world as based upon "the" river. Various oasis were known to the east and west, and were considered locations of various gods (e.g. Siwa , for Amon). To the South lay the Kushitic region, known as far as the 4th cataract. Punt was a region south along the shores of the Red Sea. Various Asiatic peoples were known as Retenu, Kanaan, Que, Harranu, or Khatti ( Hittites ). At various times especially in

4522-493: The Norman King Roger II , having great interest in geography, commissioned the creation of a book and map that would compile all this wealth of geographical information. Researchers were sent out and the collection of data took 15 years. Al-Idrisi , one of few Arabs who had ever been to France and England as well as Spain, Central Asia and Constantinople, was employed to create the book from this mass of data. Utilizing

4641-452: The Obersee with the 30 cm lower Untersee . Distance markers along the Rhine measure the distance from the bridge in the old city center of Konstanz. For most of its length, the Seerhein forms the border between Germany and Switzerland. The exception is the old city center of Konstanz, on the Swiss side of the river. The Seerhein emerged in the last thousands of years, when erosion caused

4760-673: The Rhine knee , a major bend, where the overall direction of the Rhine changes from west to north. Here the High Rhine ends. Legally, the Central Bridge is the boundary between High and Upper Rhine. The river now flows north as Upper Rhine through the Upper Rhine Plain , which is about 300 km long and up to 40 km wide. The most important tributaries in this area are the Ill below of Strasbourg,

4879-400: The Rhine knee , the river turns north and leaves Switzerland altogether. The High Rhine is characterized by numerous dams. On the few remaining natural sections, there are still several rapids . Over its entire course from Lake Constance to the Swiss border at Basel the river descends from 395 m to 252 m. In the center of Basel, the first major city in the course of the stream, is

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4998-449: The Themes or divisions of Byzantium , and are the primary sources we have today on political geography of the sixth-century East. George of Cyprus is known for his Descriptio orbis Romani (Description of the Roman world) , written in the decade 600–610. Beginning with Italy and progressing counterclockwise including Africa , Egypt and the western Middle East , George lists cities, towns, fortresses and administrative divisions of

5117-467: The canton of Ticino is drained by the Reno di Medel , which crosses the geomorphologic Alpine main ridge from the south. All streams in the source area are partially, sometimes completely, captured and sent to storage reservoirs for the local hydro-electric power plants. The culminating point of the Anterior Rhine's drainage basin is the Piz Russein of the Tödi massif of the Glarus Alps at 3,613 meters (11,854 ft) above sea level. It starts with

5236-426: The confluence of the Rein Anteriur/Vorderrhein and Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein next to Reichenau in Tamins . Above this point is the extensive catchment area of the headwaters of the Rhine. This area belongs almost exclusively to the Swiss canton of Grisons ( Graubünden ), ranging from Saint-Gotthard Massif in the west via one valley lying in the canton of Ticino and Sondrio ( Lombardy , Italy) in

5355-426: The topography of the land, along with the agricultural, economic and commercial products of each region in China's southern provinces. The polymath Chinese scientist Shen Kuo (1031–1095) devoted a significant amount of his written work to geography, as well as a hypothesis of land formation ( geomorphology ) due to the evidence of marine fossils found far inland, along with bamboo fossils found underground in

5474-412: The 19th century. While it was slightly modified during the Roman occupation, it was not until the emergence of engineers such as Johann Gottfried Tulla that significant modernization efforts changed the shape of the river. Earlier work under Frederick the Great surrounded efforts to ease shipping and construct dams to serve coal transportation. Tulla is considered to have domesticated the Upper Rhine,

5593-424: The Anterior Rhine and the Rhine as a whole. The Posterior Rhine rises in the Rheinwald below the Rheinwaldhorn . The source of the river is generally considered north of Lai da Tuma/Tomasee on Rein Anteriur/Vorderrhein , although its southern tributary Rein da Medel is actually longer before its confluence with the Anterior Rhine near Disentis . The Anterior Rhine arises from numerous source streams in

5712-401: The Austrian state of Vorarlberg , and the Swiss cantons of Thurgau and St. Gallen . The Rhine flows into it from the south following the Swiss-Austrian border. It is located at approximately 47°39′N 9°19′E  /  47.650°N 9.317°E  / 47.650; 9.317 . The flow of cold, grey mountain water continues for some distance into the lake. The cold water flows near

5831-498: The Chinese used the mythological figure of Yu the Great to describe the known earth (of the Chinese). Apart from the appearance of Yu, however, the work was devoid of magic, fantasy, Chinese folklore, or legend. Although the Chinese geographical writing in the time of Herodotus and Strabo were of lesser quality and contained less systematic approach, this would change from the 3rd century onwards, as Chinese methods of documenting geography became more complex than those found in Europe,

5950-420: The High Rhine forms the border between Germany and Switzerland . Only for brief distances at its extremities does the river run entirely within Switzerland; at the eastern end it separates the bulk of the canton of Schaffhausen and the German exclave of Büsingen am Hochrhein on the northern bank from cantons of Zürich and Thurgau , while at the western end it bisects the canton of Basel-Stadt . Here, at

6069-402: The Late Bronze Age Egyptians had diplomatic and trade relationships with Babylonia and Elam . The Mediterranean was called "the Great Green" and was believed to be part of a world encircling ocean. Europe was unknown although may have become part of the Egyptian world view in Phoenician times. To the west of Asia lay the realms of Keftiu , possibly Crete , and Mycenae (thought to be part of

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6188-454: The Latin Ren- . The Gaulish name Rēnos ( Proto-Celtic or pre-Celtic *Reinos ) belongs to a class of river names built from the PIE root *rei- "to move, flow, run", also found in other names such as the Reno in Italy. The grammatical gender of the Celtic name (as well as of its Greek and Latin adaptation) is masculine, and the name remains masculine in German, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian. The Old English river name

6307-409: The Middle Ages included: Further details about some of these are given below: In the early 10th century, Abū Zayd al-Balkhī , a Persian originally from Balkh , founded the "Balkhī school" of terrestrial mapping in Baghdad . The geographers of this school also wrote extensively of the peoples, products, and customs of areas in the Muslim world, with little interest in the non-Muslim realms. Suhrāb,

6426-501: The Middle East and Africa, the map includes India, Sri Lanka and China. Cities are demarcated using hundreds of symbols. It measures 1.12 ft (0.34 m) high and 22.15 ft (6.75 m) long. The tools and principles of geography used by the Romans would be closely followed with little practical improvement for the next 700 years. A vast corpus of Indian texts embraced the study of geography. The Vedas and Puranas contain elaborate descriptions of rivers and mountains and treat

6545-460: The Middle East, India, and Central Asia since the traveler Zhang Qian (2nd century BC), later Chinese would provide more concrete and valid information on the topography and geographical aspects of foreign regions. The Tang dynasty (618–907) Chinese diplomat Wang Xuance traveled to Magadha (modern northeastern India) during the 7th century. Afterwards he wrote the book Zhang Tian-zhu Guo Tu (Illustrated Accounts of Central India), which included

6664-425: The Persian Gulf, Arabic writers a century after Jia wrote of the same structures, writers such as al-Mas'udi and al-Muqaddasi . The later Song dynasty ambassador Xu Jing wrote his accounts of voyage and travel throughout Korea in his work of 1124, the Xuan-He Feng Shi Gao Li Tu Jing ( Illustrated Record of an Embassy to Korea in the Xuan-He Reign Period ). The geography of medieval Cambodia (the Khmer Empire )

6783-471: The Posterior Rhine is joined by the Albula , from the east, from the Albula Pass region. The Albula draws its water mainly from the Landwasser with the Dischmabach as the largest source stream, but almost as much from the Gelgia , which comes down from the Julier Pass . Numerous larger and smaller tributary rivers bear the name of the Rhine or equivalent in various Romansh idioms, including Rein or Ragn , including: Next to Reichenau in Tamins

6902-453: The Rhine into Lake Constance forms an inland delta . The delta is delimited in the west by the Alter Rhein and in the east by the modern canalized section of the Alpine Rhine ( Fußacher Durchstich ). Most of the delta is a nature reserve and bird sanctuary . It includes the Austrian towns of Gaißau , Höchst and Fußach . The natural Rhine originally branched into at least two arms and formed small islands by precipitating sediments. In

7021-442: The area around the river was made more habitable for humans on flood plains as the rate of flooding decreased sharply. On the French side, the Grand Canal d'Alsace was dug, which carries a significant part of the river water, and all of the traffic. In some places, there are large compensation pools, for example, the huge Bassin de compensation de Plobsheim in Alsace. The Upper Rhine has undergone significant human change since

7140-411: The astronomical and mathematical rules that would allow geography to be studied scientifically. His successor Anaximander is the first person known to have attempted to create a scale map of the known world and to have introduced the gnomon to Ancient Greece. Hecataeus of Miletus initiated a different form of geography, avoiding the mathematical calculations of Thales and Anaximander he learnt about

7259-412: The book's descriptions pertaining to areas of the Yellow River , the lower valleys of the Yangtze and the plain between them as well as the Shandong peninsula and to the west the most northern parts of the Wei and Han Rivers along with the southern parts of modern-day Shanxi province. In this ancient geographical treatise, which would greatly influence later Chinese geographers and cartographers,

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7378-404: The canalized Rhine into the lake. Its water has a darker color than the Rhine; the latter's lighter suspended load comes from higher up the mountains. It is expected that the continuous input of sediment into the lake will silt up the lake. This has already happened to the former Lake Tuggenersee . The cut-off Old Rhine at first formed a swamp landscape. Later an artificial ditch of about two km

7497-420: The centers Basel, Strasbourg and Mannheim-Ludwigshafen. Strasbourg is the seat of the European Parliament , and so one of the three European capitals is located on the Upper Rhine. The Upper Rhine region was changed significantly by a Rhine straightening program in the 19th century. The rate of flow was increased and the ground water level fell significantly. Dead branches were removed by construction workers and

7616-603: The changes proposed along the Rhine, one was "the Treaty for the Rectification of the Rhine flow from Neuberg to Dettenheim"(1817), which surrounded states such as Bourbon France and the Bavarian Palatinate . Loops, oxbows , branches and islands were removed along the Upper Rhine so that there would be uniformity to the river. The engineering of the Rhine was not without protest, farmers and fishermen had grave concerns about valuable fishing areas and farmland being lost. While some areas lost ground, other areas saw swamps and bogs be drained and turned into arable land. Johann Tulla had

7735-439: The contact between the "Old" and "New World"s producing the Columbian Exchange : a wide transfer of plants, animals, foods, human populations (including slaves ), communicable diseases and culture between the continents. These colonialist endeavours in 16th and 17th centuries revived a desire for both "accurate" geographic detail, and more solid theoretical foundations. The Geographia Generalis by Bernhardus Varenius , which

7854-566: The country alongside the industrial revolution. For the German state, making the river more predictable was to ensure development projects could easily commence. The section of the Upper Rhine downstream from Mainz is also known as the "Island Rhine". Here a number of river islands occur, locally known as "Rheinauen". Greco-Roman geography The History of geography includes many histories of geography which have differed over time and between different cultural and political groups. In more recent developments, geography has become

7973-411: The creation of perfectly straight stretches, some as long as 35 miles (56 km), would have been impossible. During the Greco-Roman era, those who performed geographical work could be divided into four categories: Around AD 400 a scroll map called the Peutinger Table was made of the known world, featuring the Roman road network. Besides the Roman Empire which at that time spanned from Britain to

8092-415: The creek Aua da Russein (lit.: "Water of the Russein"). In its lower course, the Anterior Rhine flows through a gorge named Ruinaulta (Flims Rockslide). The whole stretch of the Anterior Rhine to the Alpine Rhine confluence next to Reichenau in Tamins is accompanied by a long-distance hiking trail called Senda Sursilvana . The Posterior Rhine flows first east-northeast, then north. It flows through

8211-421: The discourse. The European global conquests started in the early 15th century with the first Portuguese expeditions to Africa and India, as well as the conquest of America by Spain in 1492 and continued with a series of European naval expeditions across the Atlantic and later the Pacific and Russian expeditions to Siberia until the 18th century. European overseas expansion led to the rise of colonial empires , with

8330-414: The earlier geographical works of India and the advances made by medieval Muslim geographers, particularly the work of Alberuni . In China, the earliest known geographical Chinese writing dates back to the 5th century BC, during the beginning of the Warring States period (481 BC – 221 BC). This work was the Yu Gong ('Tribute of Yu') chapter of the Shu Jing or Book of Documents , which describes

8449-434: The editorship of Prince Liu An in 139 BC during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 202 AD). The chapter gave general descriptions of topography in a systematic fashion, given visual aids by the use of maps (di tu) due to the efforts of Liu An and his associate Zuo Wu. In Chang Chu's Hua Yang Guo Chi ( Historical Geography of Sichuan ) of 347, not only rivers, trade routes, and various tribes were described, but it also wrote of

8568-405: The first time knowledge of the far east began to be known. Ptolemy's Geographia opens with a theoretical discussion about the nature and techniques of geographical inquiry, and then moves to detailed descriptions of much the known world. Ptolemy lists a huge number of cities, tribes, and sites and places them in the world. It is uncertain what Ptolemy's names correspond to in the modern world, and

8687-547: The flow is diverted off the island of Mainau into Lake Überlingen. Most of the water flows via the Constance hopper into the Rheinrinne ("Rhine Gutter") and Seerhein. Depending on the water level, this flow of the Rhine water is clearly visible along the entire length of the lake. The Rhine carries very large amounts of debris into the lake – over three million cubic meters (110,000,000 cu ft) annually. In

8806-470: The geography of Europe and Asia, based in their governance and ruling of much of this area and used this information for the undertaking of large military expeditions. The evidence for this is found in historical resources such as The Secret History of Mongols and other Persian chronicles written in 13th and 14th centuries. For example, during the rule of the Great Yuan Dynasty a world map was created and

8925-429: The geography of the eastern Mediterranean. The poems contain a large number of place names and descriptions, but for many of these it is uncertain what real location, if any, is actually being referred to. Thales of Miletus is one of the first known philosophers known to have wondered about the shape of the world. He proposed that the world was based on water, and that all things grew out of it. He also laid down many of

9044-416: The goal of shortening and straightening the Upper Rhine. Early engineering projects the Upper Rhine also had issues, with Tulla's project at one part of the river creating rapids, after the Rhine cut down from erosion to sheer rock. Engineering along the Rhine eased flooding and made transportation along the river less cumbersome. These state projects were part of the advanced and technical progress going on in

9163-463: The great learning center the House of Wisdom at Baghdad , today's Iraq . Early caliphs did not follow orthodoxy and so they encouraged scholarship. Under their rule, native non-Arabs served as mawali or dhimmi , and most geographers in this period were Syrian ( Byzantine ) or Persian, i.e. of either Zoroastrian or Christian background. Persians who wrote on geography or created maps during

9282-513: The greatest Ancient Greek explorer of all, Alexander the Great , who deliberately set out to learn more about the east through his military expeditions and so took a large number of geographers and writers with his army who recorded their observations as they moved east. The ancient Greeks divided the world into three continents, Europe, Asia, and Libya (Africa). The Hellespont formed the border between Europe and Asia. The border between Asia and Libya

9401-735: The heights of mountains and depths of valleys , recorded in The Chronology of the Ancient Nations . He discussed human geography and the planetary habitability of the Earth , suggesting that roughly a quarter of the Earth's surface is habitable by humans . By the early 12th century the Normans had overthrown the Arabs in Sicily . Palermo had become a crossroads for travelers and traders from many nations and

9520-517: The idea of a sphere to explain how the sun created differing climatic zones based on latitude. This led the Greeks to believe in a division of the world into five regions. At each of the poles was an uncharitably cold region. While extrapolating from the heat of the Sahara it was deduced that the area around the equator was unbearably hot. Between these extreme regions both the northern and southern hemispheres had

9639-567: The information inherited from the classical geographers, he created one of the most accurate maps of the world to date, the Tabula Rogeriana (1154). The map, written in Arabic, shows the Eurasian continent in its entirety and the northern part of Africa. An adherent of environmental determinism was the medieval Afro-Arab writer al-Jahiz (776–869), who explained how the environment can determine

9758-478: The interaction between humans and nature, with Marxist thought critiquing nature as a commodity within Capitalism, European thought seeing nature as either a romanticised or objective concept differing to human society, and Native American discourse, which saw nature and humans as within one category. The implied hierarchy of knowledge that perpetuated throughout these institutions has only been recently challenged, with

9877-519: The lake level to be lowered by about 10 meters. Previously, the two lakes formed a single lake, as the name still suggests. Like in the Obersee, the flow the Rhine can be traced in the Untersee. Here, too, the river water is hardly mixed with the lake water. The northern parts of the Untersee (Lake Zell and Gnadensee) remain virtually unaffected by the flow. The river traverses the southern, which, in isolation,

9996-482: The local Alemannic dialect, the singular is pronounced "Isel" and this is also the local pronunciation of Esel (" Donkey "). Many local fields have an official name containing this element. A regulation of the Rhine was called for, with an upper canal near Diepoldsau and a lower canal at Fußach, in order to counteract the constant flooding and strong sedimentation in the western Rhine Delta. The Dornbirner Ach had to be diverted, too, and it now flows parallel to

10115-452: The locations of small gorges, or mineral beds such as mica schists. Xu's work was largely systematic, providing accurate details of measurement, and his work (translated later by Ding Wenjiang) read more like a 20th-century field surveyor than an early 17th-century scholar. The Chinese were also concerned with documenting geographical information of foreign regions far outside of China. Although Chinese had been writing of civilizations of

10234-559: The magmatic plume reached the groundwater level of the Rhine (about 50 m higher than today). After the explosion, the crater was filled with water that formed a maar of about 90 m depth. In the last 250,000 years this feature filled with dust and soil until it was filled up to today's level. The Rodderberg is now a small hill that has a shallow concave shape. 50°38′33″N 7°11′54″E  /  50.64250°N 7.19833°E  / 50.64250; 7.19833 Rhine The Rhine ( / r aɪ n / RYNE )

10353-589: The monasteries and libraries, they discovered the Greek classics which included great works of geography by Egyptian Ptolemy's Almagest and Geography , along with the geographical wisdom of the Chinese and the great accomplishments of the Roman Empire . The Arabs , who spoke only Arabic , employed Christians and Jews to translate these and many other manuscripts into Arabic. The primary geographical scholarship of this era occurred in Persia , today's Iran , in

10472-635: The more commonly used terms being "Abya Yala", meaning "land of vital blood". These indigenous geographical discourses were largely ignored or appropriated by the European colonialists to make way for European thought. The Eurocentric map was patterned after a modification of Ptolemy's second projection but expanded to include the Americas. The Waldseemuller Map has been called "America's birth certificate" Waldseemüller also created printed maps called globe gores, that could be cut out and glued to spheres resulting in

10591-444: The mouth region, it is therefore necessary to permanently remove gravel by dredging. The large sediment loads are partly due to the extensive land improvements upstream. Three countries border the Obersee, namely Switzerland in the south, Austria in the southeast and the German states of Bavaria in the northeast and Baden-Württemberg in the north and northwest. The Seerhein is only 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) long. It connects

10710-524: The new title of Shui Jing Zhu ( The Waterways Classic Commented ). In later periods of the Song dynasty (960–1279) and Ming dynasty (1368–1644), there were much more systematic and professional approaches to geographic literature. The Song dynasty poet, scholar, and government official Fan Chengda (1126–1193) wrote the geographical treatise known as the Gui Hai Yu Heng Chi . It focused primarily on

10829-611: The north bank and Switzerland on the south, except both sides are Swiss in Stein am Rhein , where the High Rhine flows out of the lake. The High Rhine ( Hochrhein ) begins in Stein am Rhein at the western end of the Untersee. Now flowing generally westwards, it passes over the Rhine Falls ( Rheinfall ) below Schaffhausen before being joined – near Koblenz in the canton of Aargau  – by its major tributary,

10948-506: The open Sztal valley and then through Lake Walen and Lake Zurich into the Aare . The Alpine Rhine begins in the westernmost part of the Swiss canton of Graubünden , and later forms the border between Switzerland to the west and Liechtenstein and later Austria to the east. As an effect of human work, it empties into Lake Constance on Austrian territory and not on the border that follows its old natural river bed called Alter Rhein ( lit.   ' Old Rhine ' ). The mouth of

11067-421: The origin of the Earth. They theorized that the Earth was formed by the solidification of gaseous matter and that the Earth's crust is composed of hard rocks (sila), clay (bhumih) and sand (asma). Theories were also propounded to explain earthquakes (bhukamp) and it was assumed that earth, air and water combined to cause earthquakes. The Arthashastra , a compendium by Kautilya (also known as Chanakya ) contains

11186-534: The other hand, in the east and north. A curiosity of this border line is that the parts of the city of Mainz on the right bank of the Rhine were given to Hesse by the occupying forces in 1945. The Upper Rhine was a significant cultural landscape in Central Europe already in antiquity and during the Middle Ages . Today, the Upper Rhine area hosts many important manufacturing and service industries, particularly in

11305-538: The physical characteristics of the inhabitants of a certain community. He used his early theory of evolution to explain the origins of different human skin colors , particularly black skin, which he believed to be the result of the environment. He cited a stony region of black basalt in the northern Najd as evidence for his theory. During the Early Middle Ages , geographical knowledge in Europe regressed (though it

11424-589: The relationship between physical and human elements. According to religious scholar Diana Eck , a notable feature of geography in India is its interweaving with Hindu mythology, No matter where one goes in India, one will find a landscape in which mountains, rivers, forests, and villages are elaborately linked to the stories and gods of Indian culture. Every place in this vast country has its story; and conversely, every story of Hindu myth and legend has its place. The geographers of ancient India put forward theories regarding

11543-512: The river. Some adjacent towns are named after it, such as Rheinau , Rheineck , Rheinfelden (CH) and Rheinfelden (D). The International Commission for the Hydrology of the Rhine Basin (CHR) and EUWID contend that the river could experience a massive decrease in volume, or even dry up completely in case of drought, within the next 30 to 80 years, as a result of the climate crisis . The Rhine

11662-649: The south to the Flüela Pass in the east. The Rhine is one of four major rivers taking their source in the Gotthard region, along with the Ticino (drainage basin of the Po ), Rhône and Reuss (Rhine basin). The Witenwasserenstock is the triple watershed between the Rhine, Rhône and Po. Traditionally, Lake Toma near the Oberalp Pass in the Gotthard region is seen as the source of

11781-412: The surface and at first does not mix with the warmer, green waters of Upper Lake. But then, at the so-called Rheinbrech , the Rhine water abruptly falls into the depths because of the greater density of cold water. The flow reappears on the surface at the northern (German) shore of the lake, off the island of Lindau . The water then follows the northern shore until Hagnau am Bodensee . A small fraction of

11900-645: The three valleys named Rheinwald , Schams and Domleschg - Heinzenberg . The valleys are separated by the Rofla Gorge and Viamala Gorge. Its sources are located in the Adula Alps ( Rheinwaldhorn , Rheinquellhorn , and Güferhorn ). The Avers Rhine joins from the south. One of its headwaters, the Reno di Lei (stowed in the Lago di Lei ), is partially located in Italy. Near Sils

12019-568: The topics of these chapters. Varāhamihira 's Brihat-Samhita gave a thorough treatment of planetary movements, rainfall, clouds and the formation of water. The mathematician-astronomer Aryabhatiya gave a precise estimate of the Earth's circumference in his treatise Āryabhaṭīya . Aryabhata accurately calculated the Earth's circumference as 24,835 miles, which was only 0.2% smaller than the actual value of 24,902 miles. The Mughal chronicles Tuzuk-i-Jehangiri, Ain-i-Akbari and Dastur-ul-aml contain detailed geographical narratives. These were based on

12138-410: The traditional nine provinces of ancient China, their kinds of soil, their characteristic products and economic goods, their tributary goods, their trades and vocations, their state revenues and agricultural systems, and the various rivers and lakes listed and placed accordingly. The nine provinces at the time of this geographical work were relatively small in size compared to those of modern China with

12257-491: The upper Surselva and flows in an easterly direction. One source is Lai da Tuma (2,345 m (7,694 ft)) with the Rein da Tuma , which is usually indicated as source of the Rhine, flowing through it. Into it flow tributaries from the south, some longer, some equal in length, such as the Rein da Medel , the Rein da Maighels , and the Rein da Curnera . The Cadlimo Valley in

12376-532: The works of almost all earlier geographers have been lost, many of them are partially known through quotations found in Strabo (64/63 BC – ca. AD 24). Strabo's seventeen volume work of geography is almost completely extant, and is one of the most important sources of information on classical geography. Strabo accepted the narrow band of habitation theory, and rejected the accounts of Hanno and Pytheas as fables. None of Strabo's maps survive, but his detailed descriptions give

12495-449: The world as a grand machine from the Divine. Scientific voyages and travels constructed geopolitical power from geographical knowledge, partly sponsored by Royal Society . The discourse of geographical history gave way to many new thoughts and theories, but the hegemony of the European male academia led to the exclusion of non-western theories, observations and knowledges. One such example is

12614-469: The world by gathering previous works and speaking to the sailors who came through the busy port of Miletus. From these accounts he wrote a detailed prose account of what was known of the world. A similar work, and one that mostly survives today, is Herodotus ' Histories . While primarily a work of history, the book contains a wealth of geographic descriptions covering much of the known world. Egypt, Scythia, Persia, and Asia Minor are all described, including

12733-494: Was "the science of imperialism par excellence." Imperialism is a crucial concept for the Europeans, as the institution become involved in geographical exploration and colonial project. Authority was questioned, and utility gained its importance. In the era of Enlightenment, geography generated knowledge and made it intellectually and practically possible as a university discipline. The natural theology required geography to investigate

12852-999: Was adapted in Roman-era geography (1st century BC) as Latin Rhenus , and as Greek Ῥῆνος ( Rhēnos ). The spelling with Rh- in English Rhine as well as in German Rhein and French Rhin is due to the influence of Greek orthography, while the vocalization -i- is due to the Proto-Germanic adoption of the Gaulish name as * Rīnaz , via Old Frankish giving Old English Rín , Old High German Rīn , early Middle Dutch ( c.  1200 ) Rijn (then also spelled Ryn or Rin ). The modern German diphthong Rhein (also used in Romansh ) Rein, Rain

12971-502: Was documented in the book Zhen-La Feng Tu Ji of 1297, written by Zhou Daguan . After the fall of the western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire , ruled from Constantinople and known as the Byzantine Empire , continued to thrive and produced several noteworthy geographers. Stephanus of Byzantium (6th century) was a grammarian at Constantinople and authored the important geographical dictionary Ethnica . This work

13090-464: Was dug. It was made navigable to the Swiss town of Rheineck . Lake Constance consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee ("upper lake"), the Untersee ("lower lake"), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein ("Lake Rhine"). The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps. Specifically, its shorelines lie in the German states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg ,

13209-751: Was found that the Sun was to their right (the north). This is thought to have been a key trigger in the realization that the Earth is spherical, in the classical world. In the 4th century BC the Greek explorer Pytheas traveled through northeast Europe, and circled the British Isles. He found that the region was considerably more habitable than theory expected, but his discoveries were largely dismissed by his contemporaries because of this. Conquerors also carried out exploration, for example, Caesar's invasions of Britain and Germany , expeditions/invasions sent by Augustus to Arabia Felix and Ethiopia ( Res Gestae 26), and perhaps

13328-587: Was generally considered to be the Nile river, but some geographers, such as Herodotus objected to this. Herodotus argued that there was no difference between the people on the east and west sides of the Nile, and that the Red Sea was a better border. The relatively narrow habitable band was considered to run from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to an unknown sea somewhere east of India in the east. The southern portion of Africa

13447-433: Was in the vast region east of Asia and to the west of Europe. Crates of Mallus proposed that there were in fact four inhabitable land masses, two in each hemisphere. In Rome a large globe was created depicting this world. Posidonius set out to get a measurement, but his number actually was considerably smaller than the real one, yet it became accepted that the eastern part of Asia was not a huge distance from Europe. While

13566-485: Was not completely abandoned by Western cartographers until the circumnavigation of Africa by Vasco da Gama . Some, though, hold that the descriptions of areas such as India are mostly imaginary. Regardless, Herodotus made important observations about geography. He is the first to have noted the process by which large rivers, such as the Nile, build up deltas , and is also the first recorded as observing that winds tend to blow from colder regions to warmer ones. Pythagoras

13685-402: Was perhaps the first to propose a spherical world, arguing that the sphere was the most perfect form. This idea was embraced by Plato , and Aristotle presented empirical evidence to verify this. He noted that the Earth's shadow during a lunar eclipse is curved from any angle (near the horizon or high in the sky), and also that stars increase in height as one moves north. Eudoxus of Cnidus used

13804-477: Was the first to describe a polar equi- azimuthal equidistant projection of the celestial sphere . He was also regarded as the most skilled when it came to mapping cities and measuring the distances between them, which he did for many cities in the Middle East and western Indian subcontinent . He combined astronomical readings and mathematical equations to record degrees of latitude and longitude and to measure

13923-531: Was unknown, as was the northern portion of Europe and Asia, so it was believed that they were circled by a sea. These areas were generally considered uninhabitable. The size of the Earth was an important question to the Ancient Greeks. Eratosthenes calculated the Earth's circumference with great precision. Since the distance from the Atlantic to India was roughly known, this raised the important question of what

14042-664: Was used in Newton 's teaching of geography at Cambridge , and Gerardus Mercator 's world map are prime examples of the new breed of scientific geography. The Waldseemüller map Universalis Cosmographia , created by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in April 1507, is the first map of the Americas in which the name "America" is mentioned. Before this, the Native Americans referred to their land depending on their location, with one of

14161-461: Was variously inflected as masculine or feminine; and its Old Icelandic adoption was inflected as feminine. The length of the Rhine is conventionally measured in "Rhine-kilometers" ( Rheinkilometer ), a scale introduced in 1939 which runs from the 0 km datum at Old Rhine Bridge in the city of Konstanz , at the western end of Lake Constance , to the Hook of Holland at 1,036.20 km. The river

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