The Sandbach is a river in the districts of

Rastatt Rastatt () is a town with a Baroque core, District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located in the Upper Rhine Plain on the Murg river, above its junction with the Rhine and has a population of around 50,000 (2011). Rastatt was a ...

and

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the Rhine, the border with Fra ...

in the German state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

. From its source it runs, initially as the Bühlot, northwestwards within the

Northern Black Forest The Northern Black Forest (german: Nordschwarzwald) refers to the northern third of the Black Forest in Germany or, less commonly today, to the northern half of this mountain region. Geography The Northern Black Forest is bounded in the north ...

, then out onto the

Upper Rhine Plain The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben (German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the s ...

heading north-northeast at first before swinging northwest again to its confluence. Its mouth lies 29.1 kilometres below its source near Iffezheim, where it discharges from the right into the lower reaches of the

Acher The Acher is a 53.6-kilometre-long river and right-hand tributary of the Rhine in the county of Ortenau, in the south German state of Baden-Württemberg. It flows in an northwesterly direction from the Black Forest to the Rhine, between the tw ...

which are known as the ''Altrheinzug'' ("Old Rhine Course").

Geography

The source region of the Sandbach lies near the Black Forest High Road ( B500) between Hundseck and Unterstmatt on the Hochkopf at a height of about . The Sandbach, in its upper reaches called the "Bühlot", flows steeply downhill in a northerly direction, meeting several small streams such as the ''„Rotwässerle''. At its confluence with ''Wiedenbach'', which joins from the direction of

Sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class ...

and has a tributary, the ''Gertelbach'' on which are the Gertelbach Falls beloved of hikers, the Sandbach changes its direction to the northwest. Here it runs through the municipality of

Bühlertal Bühlertal is a municipality in the district of Rastatt in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Geography Geographic location Bühlertal encompasses almost the entirety of the Bühlot Valley and its side valleys on the Western slope of the Nor ...

, where it is joined from the left by the streams of ''Grünebächle'' and ''Eichwaldbächle'' and, from the right, by the ''Liehenbach'' and other small brooks. In addition, in Bühlertal, it crosses the lake of ''Bühlot-Bad'', named after the local name for the Sandbach. In Altschweier the Sandbach turns in an arc and flows southwestwards to Bühl. From there it swings west again. At the town gardens in Bühl a small ditch branches off, the ''Kirchgaßgraben'', which joins the river again later on. Shortly afterwards the stream passes under the

Rhine Valley Railway ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , source ...

. After crossing under another bridge, the river becomes known as the Sandbach. Behind the bridge bearing the B 3 the Sandbach turns towards the north in a wide bend and continues in a north-northeasterly direction. In Vimbuch the ''Rittgraben'', another ditch, branches off only to reunite with the Sandbach further downstream. The Sandbach Flood Channel (''Sandbach-Flutkanal''), which links the Sandbach to the ''Scheidgraben'' ditch, also branches off at Vimbach. In Weitenung, by contrast, two right-hand tributaries empty into the Sandbach, the ''Steinbach'' and the ''Grünbach'', and a few kilometres further on, in Kartung, it is joined by the ''Sinzheimer Dorfbach''. Shortly thereafter, where it meets the Oos Canal, that links it with the River Oos, and passes under the A 5 motorway, the Sandbach bends again and flows northwest. It runs in this direction for another 4.6 km, before discharging from the right into the ''Altrheinzug'', the name of the lower reaches of the River Acher. Shortly before the confluence the Sandbach crosses over the Rhine Valley Canal.

References

External links

Map of the Sandbach from source to mouth
at: {{GeoQuelle, DE-BW, LUBW, ref=nein Rivers of Baden-Württemberg Rivers of the Black Forest Rastatt (district) Baden-Baden Rivers of Germany