The Ach, also called Aach, is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the ...

located in

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 ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. It flows into the Blau in

Blaubeuren Blaubeuren () is a town in the district of Alb-Donau near Ulm in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. it had 11,963 inhabitants. Geography Geographical location The core city Blaubeuren lies at the foot of the Swabian Jura, west of Ulm. Neighbori ...

Geography

Source

The river Ach has its source west of

Schelklingen Schelklingen is a town in the district of Alb-Donau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is situated 10 km north of Ehingen, and 20 km west of Ulm. Schelklingen and 82% of its territory form part of the Swabian Jura Biosphere Reserve. ...

in the Achursprung (535 m above sea level), a karst spring at the Dreikönigsmühle and about 500 m south of the monastery Urspring. It is a circular, bluish shimmering spring pot with an average flow of 440 litres per second (min. 110 L/s, max. 1,200 L/s).

Course

After only about 100 m of river, the longer and more water-rich Urspring, which has its source near the monastery Urspring, flows into the river on the left side. The Ach runs along its entire length in a valley of the Urdonau. Until Schelklingen it flows in an easterly direction, but then turns to the northeast. Before its mouth, the Ach flows around the Bruckfels near Weiler at the Geißenklösterle and the Weilerhalde in two wide river loops before it flows through

and joins the still young Blau at 515 m above sea level. On its 10.2 km long path the Ach falls 20 m in height, which corresponds to a mean bed gradient of 2 ‰ Auf ihrem 10,2 km langen Weg fällt die Ach um 20 m Höhe, was einem mittleren Sohlgefälle von 2 ‰ entspricht.

Sights and structures

In Schelklingen are the ruins of Hohenschelklingen Castle and Saint Afra's Chapel with its

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

fresco cycle. In the Ach valley are the

Hohler Fels The ''Hohle Fels'' () (also ''Hohlefels'', ''Hohler Fels'', German for "hollow rock") is a cave in the Swabian Jura of Germany that has yielded a number of important archaeological finds dating from the Upper Paleolithic. Artifacts found in the ...

, one of the largest caverns in the

Swabian Jura The Swabian Jura (german: Schwäbische Alb , more rarely ), sometimes also named Swabian Alps in English, is a mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending from southwest to northeast and in width. It is named after the region of ...

and south Germany, in which

archaeologically Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes ...

important discoveries were made. On the opposite side of the valley stands the Sirgenstein, a twenty-metre-high rock outcrop on which there are traces of a Stone Age cave dwelling and a

medieval castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

. Further down the valley are the ruins of Günzelburg Castle and another Stone Age cave, Geißenklösterle, and yet another Stone Age cave,

Brillenhöhle Cave The Brillenhöhle (german: Brillenhöhle, literally ''spectacles cave'') is a cave ruin, located west of Ulm on the Swabian Alb in south-western Germany, where archaeological excavations have documented human habitation since as early as 30,000 ...

. In Blaubeuren are the

Blautopf The Blautopf (German for ''Blue pot'') is a spring that serves as the source of the river Blau in the karst landscape on the Swabian Jura's southern edge. It is located in Blaubeuren, Alb-Donau-Kreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (approximately ...

and, nearby, the former

Blaubeuren Abbey Blaubeuren Abbey (german: Kloster Blaubeuren) was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation, located in Blaubeuren, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is now a Protestant seminary. History: Catholic The monastery was founded in 1085 by the ...

with its abbey church, the ruins of the Rusenschloß and the

hammer mill A hammer mill, hammer forge or hammer works was a workshop in the pre- industrial era that was typically used to manufacture semi-finished, wrought iron products or, sometimes, finished agricultural or mining tools, or military weapons. The featu ...

References

Rivers of Baden-Württemberg Rivers of Germany {{BadenWürttemberg-river-stub

Geography

Source

Course

Sights and structures

See also

References