River
Sauer
173 km from source to mouth · Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Germany, Belgium and LuxembourgFlows into Moselle
In numbers
Length
173km
Average flow
220m³/s
Basin
4,259km²
Drop
254m
from 390 m to 136 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
173 km of river and 36 stops on the way: 21 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmPlanchipontat 390 m
- 7 kmFauvillers1,952 people
- 15 kmMartelange1,440 people
- 50 kmEsch-sur-Sûre Dam
- 50 kmUpper Sûre Lake1.6 km²
- 70 kmGoebelsmuhle34 people
- 86 kmErpeldange1,095 people
- 87 kmWarken1,554 people
- 88 kmPont Patton
- 89 kmSchieren1,397 people
- 89 kmEttelbruck6,364 people
- 89 kmAlzettetributary
- 94 kmDiekirch7,295 people
- 95 kmstone arch bridge of Diekirch
- 97 kmGilsdorf1,145 people
- 98 kmBleestributary
- 102 kmBettendorf1,072 people
- 110 kmWhite Ernztributary
- 113 kmBorder Bridge over the Sauer River at Wallendorf
- 114 kmOurtributary
- 118 kmBridge of Dillingen
- 120 kmBeaufort1,418 people
- 122 kmGaybachtributary
- 126 kmBollendorf1,552 people
- 137 kmEchternach6,031 people
- 137 kmOld Echternach Bridge
- 137 kmEchternacherbrück1,138 people
- 144 kmIrrel1,324 people
- 147 kmRalingen1,997 people
- 160 kmPrüm Rivertributary
- 167 kmSauer Valley Bridge
- 169 kmLangsur1,634 people
- 170 kmWasserbillig3,485 people
- 171 kmMertert1,163 people
- 171 kmWasserbillig railway bridge
- 173 kmWasserliesch2,265 people
- 173 kmIgel2,003 people
- 173 kmMoselleat 136 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Belgium, Luxembourg and German border
At the mouth it carries 219 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 11 seconds. It drops from 390 m to 136 m, 1.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 4,259 km², about the size of CV. 2.2 million people live in it. Highest water: from December to January. Its dams hold back little of its water (2.2% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- DiekirchLargest city on its banks · 7,295 people
- Luxembourg-Findel International Airport (LUX)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 27 km from the cityCar hire at LUX airport (Luxembourg)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water38 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Sauer, month by month
Highest water: from December to January
Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 70 m³/s in the lowest month to 380 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
Sauer: the basin in numbers
16,303 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 2.2millionpeople live in the basin
- 133/km²people per km²
- 351maverage altitude of the basin
- 839mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 8.9°Caverage air temperature
- 24%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 0.1km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 32% Forest
- 25% Cropland
- 22% 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
Sauer: what you find on the way
- 36WeirsMoulin de l'oeil, Wehr 1 and 34 more
- 17Waterfalls
- 1Rapids
- 33Boat rampsSlipway Liefrange, Ziel Kanuverleih Camping Altschmiede, Alte Fährrampe Igel and 30 more
- 2Ferry piersWasserbillig, Oberbillig
- 2MarinasLiefrange, Insenborn
- 6River beachesRommwiss, Burfelt, Fuussefeld and 3 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Sauer 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
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Upper Sûre Lakekm 341.6km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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
Sauer in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
MoselleGermany544 km320 m³/sTributaries (13)
Also: Wiltz, Prüm River, Black Ernz, White Ernz, Blees, Gaybach, Syrbach, Strange, Schlirbech, Schlënner, Géronne
The Netherlands
Switzerland
FranceNearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q158847) · 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 — 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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