River
Elde
208 km from source to mouth · Germany.
GermanyFlows into Löcknitz
In numbers
Length
208km
Average flow
11m³/s
Basin
2,990km²
Drop
57m
from 67 m to 10 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
208 km of river and 36 stops on the way: 7 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmAltenhofat 67 m
- 3 kmMassower See1.1 km²
- 11 kmMönchsee0.9 km²
- 17 kmGroßer Kiever See0.6 km²
- 17 kmGlambeck-See0.3 km²
- 21 kmSewekowsee0.3 km²
- 21 kmMüritzsee0.4 km²
- 21 kmNebelsee1.3 km²
- 23 kmThüren1.5 km²
- 27 kmSumpfsee0.3 km²
- 50 kmFeisnecksee1.5 km²
- 51 kmWaren21,470 people
- 51 kmMüritz108 km²
- 60 kmJabelscher See2.0 km²
- 61 kmKölpinsee19 km²
- 68 kmMalchow7,384 people
- 69 kmFleesensee12 km²
- 74 kmPetersdorfer See0.8 km²
- 76 kmGroßer Pätsch-See0.5 km²
- 80 kmPlauer See37 km²
- 81 kmPlauer Hubbrücke
- 81 kmPlau am See5,958 people
- 89 kmKritzower See0.4 km²
- 93 kmZahrener See0.4 km²
- 99 kmPassower See0.3 km²
- 103 kmLübz6,355 people
- 115 kmGehlsbachtributary
- 129 kmWockersee0.5 km²
- 129 kmParchim19,161 people
- 129 kmWockertributary
- 152 kmFriedrichsmoorer Karpfenteiche3.4 km²
- 157 kmNeustädter See1.1 km²
- 158 kmNeustadt-Glewe6,952 people
- 158 kmElektrizitätswerk Neustadt-Glewe
- 168 kmHechtsforthschleuse
- 173 kmGrabow6,268 people
- 180 kmMeynbachtributary
- 208 kmLöcknitzat 10 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in northern Germany
At the mouth it carries 11 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 227 seconds. It drops from 67 m to 10 m, 0.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 2,990 km², about the size of LU. 241,000 people live in it. Highest water: March; lowest: from January to February. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- WarenLargest city on its banks · 21,470 people
- Rostock-Laage Airport (RLG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 52 km from the cityCar hire at BER airport (Berlin)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water88 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Elde, month by month
Highest water: March
Lowest water: from January to February. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 16 m³/s in the lowest month to 40 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
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Elde: the basin in numbers
3,841 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 241,000people live in the basin
- 69/km²people per km²
- 60maverage altitude of the basin
- 584mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 8.3°Caverage air temperature
- 40%protected areas
- 8.0%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 21% Forest
- 43% Cropland
- 11% Pasture
- 3% 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
Elde: what you find on the way
- 41WeirsÜberlaufwehr Barkow, Wehr Malchow, Wehr Klein Laasch and 38 more
- 15LocksMüritz-Elde-Wasserstraße, Schleuse Hechtsforth, Schleuse Grabow and 12 more
- 2WaterfallsSteinschwall
- 24Boat rampsWasserwanderrastplatz Plau am See, Stadtmarina Lübz, Slipway Grabow and 21 more
- 9Ferry piersRechlin, Hafendorf Müritz (Fahrgastanleger Weisse Flotte Müritz), Hafen Klink, Klink, Müritz-Klinik and 6 more
- 39MarinasMarina Buchholz, Yachthafen Rechlin, Seglerverein Rechlin and 36 more
- 31River beachesFKK, Badestrand Müritz Hotel GmbH, Hundestrand and 28 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Elde 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.
23lakes on its wayLakeyas
10mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (23)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Massower Seekm 31.1km²
- Feisneckseekm 511.5km²
- Müritzkm 52 · 31 m deep108km²
- Jabelscher Seekm 622.0km²
- Kölpinseekm 62 · 30 m deep19km²
- Fleesenseekm 71 · 26 m deep12km²
- Plauer Seekm 82 · 26 m deep37km²
- Neustädter Seekm 1611.1km²
15 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (10)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Balands-Berg5.1 km away
- Buchberg11 km away
- Waren Berg7.7 km away
- Stüde Berg10 km away
- Mittels-Berg9.5 km away
- Schmiede Berg13 km away
- Schafstall7.2 km away
- Schäfer Berg13 km away
2 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
Elde in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (7)
Also: Gehlsbach, Moosterbach, Wocker, Meynbach, Brenzer Kanal, Roter Bach, Roter Bach (Slate)
CzechiaNearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1688) · 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
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