River
Unstrut
192 km from source to mouth · Germany.
GermanyFlows into Saale
In numbers
Length
192km
Average flow
4.6m³/s
Basin
6,343km²
Drop
147m
from 249 m to 102 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
192 km of river and 24 stops on the way: 13 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 249 m
- 3 kmDingelstädt4,878 people
- 26 kmMühlhausen38,108 people
- 50 kmBad Langensalza16,717 people
- 68 kmHerbsleben3,140 people
- 76 kmGeratributary
- 84 kmGrammetributary
- 95 kmSömmerda20,853 people
- 101 kmLossatributary
- 104 kmHelbetributary
- 105 kmRiethgen242 people
- 116 kmOldisleben2,196 people
- 118 kmWippertributary
- 123 kmBretleben530 people
- 128 kmSchleuse Artern
- 130 kmArtern6,340 people
- 133 kmHelmetributary
- 133 kmRitteburg
- 145 kmRoßleben4,885 people
- 149 kmSchleuse Wendelstein
- 167 kmUnstruttalbrücke
- 168 kmKarsdorf1,335 people
- 178 kmSchleuse Laucha
- 186 kmFreyburg4,451 people
- 192 kmNaumburg31,617 people
- 192 kmSaaleat 102 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Germany
At the mouth it carries 4.6 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 543 seconds. It drops from 249 m to 102 m, 0.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 6,343 km², about the size of PS. 793,000 people live in it. Highest water: from June to August. Its dams hold back little of its water (6.8% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- MühlhausenLargest city on its banks · 38,108 people
- Erfurt-Weimar Airport (ERF)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 44 km from the cityCar hire at LEJ airport (Schkeuditz)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water26 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe7 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Unstrut, month by month
Highest water: from June to August
Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 16 m³/s in the lowest month to 71 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
Unstrut: the basin in numbers
6,339 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 793,000people live in the basin
- 125/km²people per km²
- 282maverage altitude of the basin
- 604mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 8.0°Caverage air temperature
- 25%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 0.1km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 12% Forest
- 49% Cropland
- 10% Pasture
- 5% 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
Unstrut: what you find on the way
- 47WeirsWehr Riethmühle, Orgelmühlenwehr, Mühlwehr and 44 more
- 11LocksSchleuse Artern, Schleuse Ritteburg, Schleuse Wendelstein and 8 more
- 7Canoe put-insKanuanleger and 6 more
- 15Boat rampsFlutwehr, Slipanlage Wendelstein, Unstrut-Tours Aktivreisen and 12 more
- 4Ferry piersFreyburg, Blütengrund, Naumburg Blütengrund and 1 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Unstrut 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.
102mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (102)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Hülfensberg14 km away448m
- Warte-Berg6.4 km away516m
- Hockelrain3.6 km away515m
- Rode (Obereichsfeld)12 km away498m
- Höheberg11 km away521m
- Keudelskuppe14 km away485m
- Plesse15 km away480m
- Schimberg7.6 km away473m
94 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
Unstrut in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
SaaleGermany413 km120 m³/sTributaries (11)
Also: Helme, Wipper, Lossa, Gramme, Notter, Salza, Helbe, Seebach, Tonna, Luhne
CzechiaNearby
Rivers nearby
Germany257 km100 m³/s31 km awayMuldeGermany147 km65 m³/s83 km awayGeraGermany85 km54 m³/s61 km awayBlack ElsterGermany179 km350 m³/s102 km awayFuldaGermany218 km67 m³/s152 km awayWerraGermany292 km51 m³/s152 km awaySpreeGermany382 km36 m³/s180 km awayHavelGermany325 km89 m³/s189 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q168390) · 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 | 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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