Crossword Dictionary
ELBE RIVER
Elbe River, Czech Labe, one of the major waterways of central Europe. It runs from the Czech Republic through Germany to the North Sea, flowing generally to the northwest. The river rises on the southern side of the Krkonoše (Giant) Mountains near the border of the Czech Republic and Poland. It then makes a wide arc across Bohemia (northwestern Czech Republic) and enters eastern Germany about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Dresden. For the remainder of its course it flows through Germany. Above Hamburg the Elbe splits into two branches; these rejoin farther downstream, and the river then broadens into its estuary, the mouth of which is at Cuxhaven, where it flows into the North Sea.
The total length of the Elbe is 724 miles (1,165 km), of which roughly one-third flows through the Czech Republic and two-thirds through Germany. Its total drainage area is 55,620 square miles (144,060 square km). Major tributaries are the Vltava (Moldau), OhÅ™e (Eger), Mulde, and Saale rivers, all of which join it from the left, and the Iser, Schwarze (“Blackâ€) Elster, Havel, and Alster rivers from the right.
The Elbe is formed by the confluence of numerous headwater streams in the KrkonoÅ¡e Mountains a few miles from the Polish-Czech frontier. It flows south and west, forming a wide arc for about 225 miles in the Czech Republic to its confluence with the Vltava at MÄ›lnÃk and is joined 18 miles downstream by the OhÅ™e. It then cuts to the northwest through the picturesque Elbe Sandstone Mountains, and, in a gorge four miles long, it enters Germany.