River
Altmühl
227 km from source to mouth · Germany.
GermanyFlows into Danube
In numbers
Length
227km
Average flow
370m³/s
Basin
3,258km²
Drop
88m
from 426 m to 338 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
227 km of river and 45 stops on the way: 34 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmBurgbernheimat 426 m
- 0 kmBurghausen (Windelsbach)128 people
- 9 kmLeutershausen5,592 people
- 21 kmHerrieden7,751 people
- 32 kmBrücke
- 40 kmAltmühl bridge
- 46 kmMuhr am See2,425 people
- 51 kmSchlungenhof298 people
- 51 kmAltmühlsee3.9 km²
- 53 kmAltmühlbrücke Gunzenhausen
- 53 kmGunzenhausen16,698 people
- 55 kmAha446 people
- 59 kmUnterasbach262 people
- 61 kmWindsfeld352 people
- 64 kmGundelsheim an der Altmühl237 people
- 66 kmEhlheim142 people
- 68 kmMeinheim840 people
- 69 kmTrommetsheim578 people
- 70 kmMarkt Berolzheim1,259 people
- 73 kmLengenfeld41 people
- 76 kmBubenheim290 people
- 81 kmTreuchtlingen13,110 people
- 84 kmDietfurt in Mittelfranken508 people
- 89 kmPappenheim3,934 people
- 89 kmNiederpappenheim81 people
- 91 kmZimmern179 people
- 95 kmSolnhofen1,784 people
- 98 kmEßlingen95 people
- 100 kmGailachtributary
- 118 kmHüttenbachtributary
- 122 kmFranz-Göpfert-Steg
- 123 kmEichstätt14,066 people
- 131 kmAltmühl Bridge Pfünz
- 153 kmKipfenberg5,835 people
- 160 kmSchwarzachtributary
- 172 kmSulztributary
- 172 kmBeilngries5,302 people
- 174 kmLeising50 people
- 176 kmKottingwörth467 people
- 184 kmDietfurt6,161 people
- 201 kmRiedenburg6,055 people
- 211 kmSchambachtributary
- 213 kmEssing1,114 people
- 221 kmIhrlerstein4,419 people
- 222 kmKelheim17,108 people
- 227 kmSaal5,626 people
- 227 kmDanubeat 338 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Bavaria, Germany
At the mouth it carries 372 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 6.7 seconds. It drops from 426 m to 338 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 3,258 km², about the size of CV. 3.8 million people live in it. Highest water: from March to May; lowest: from December to February. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- KelheimLargest city on its banks · 17,108 people
- Munich Airport (MUC)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 63 km from the cityCar hire at MUC airport (Munich)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water59 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe50 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Altmühl, month by month
Highest water: from March to May
Lowest water: from December to February. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 240 m³/s in the lowest month to 650 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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The basin
Altmühl: the basin in numbers
26,150 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 3.8millionpeople live in the basin
- 147/km²people per km²
- 657maverage altitude of the basin
- 886mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 7.5°Caverage air temperature
- 22%protected areas
- 0.4%covered by lakes
- 0.2km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 38% Forest
- 30% Cropland
- 23% Pasture
- 7% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Altmühl: what you find on the way
- 63WeirsWehr Ornbau, Wehr Muhr, Wehr Streudorf and 60 more
- 17LocksLudwig-Donau-Main-Kanal, Schleuse Dietfurt, Schleuse Riedburg and 14 more
- 2Waterfalls
- 5Rapids
- 45Canoe put-insGunzenhausen, Reitstegwehr, Treuchtlinger Wehr and 42 more
- 25Boat ramps
- 18Ferry piersSeezentrum Wald, Seezentrum Muhr am See, Surfzentrum Schlungenhof and 15 more
- 7MarinasSeezentrum Muhr am See, Seezentrum Wald, Seezentrum Schlungenhof and 4 more
- 7River beachesBadeweiher Colmberg, Altmühlflussbad Ornbau, Flussbad Mörsach and 4 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Altmühl in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
103mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Altmühlseekm 423.9km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (103)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Büttelberg5.1 km away · prominence 64 m530m
- Petersberg5.5 km away504m
- Deutscher Bühl9.7 km away527m
- Laubersberg14 km away517m
- Kühberg13 km away516m
- Felberg14 km away · prominence 54 m509m
- Eichbuck2.2 km away509m
- Sandberg8.2 km away · prominence 81 m534m
95 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Altmühl in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Danube
Romania2,850 km5,400 m³/sTributaries (44)
Also: Sulz, Schwarzach, Weiße Laber, Gailach, Mühlbach, Schambach, Wurmbach, Störzelbach, Wachsteiner Bach, Schlangenbach, Wieseth, Hungerbach, Kapellenbach, Möhrenbach, Schambach, Hüttenbach, Rohrach, Weihergraben, Schambach, Augraben, Dornhauser Mühlbach, Holzgraben, Laubenzedeler Mühlbach, Walder Altmühl
Serbia
Croatia
Moldova
AustriaNearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q317060) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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