The Alf is a small river in

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

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 ...

, a left tributary of the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...

. It rises in the

Eifel The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of ...

, near Darscheid, east of

Daun Daun is a town in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the district seat and also the seat of the ' of Daun. Geography Location The town lies in the , a part of the Eifel known for its volcanic history, geog ...

. The Alf flows south through

Mehren Mehren is a municipality in the district of Altenkirchen, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany. The river Mehrbach The Mehrbach is a river, long, and a tributary of the Wied (river), Wied. Its GKZ is 27164, its drainage basin, catch ...

Gillenfeld Gillenfeld is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Daun, whose se ...

and Bausendorf, where it turns east to flow into the Moselle at the village of Alf.

Geography

Course

The Alf rises about northeast of Hörscheid in the

Volcanic Eifel The Volcanic Eifel or Vulkan Eifel (german: Vulkaneifel) is a region in the Eifel Mountains in Germany that is defined to a large extent by its volcanic geological history. Characteristic of this volcanic field are its typical explosion crater la ...

. From its source at a height of , the Alf initially flows in a southerly direction to the village of Darscheid, from which it flows to the east through the villages of

and Strohn. The next section of the Alf, to Bausendorf, is very winding; it then turns towards the east and cuts through the south of the forest of

Kondelwald The Kondelwald, also known as the Kondel, is a forest, about 2,500 hectares in area and up to , that forms part of the Moselle Eifel. It lies within the counties of Bernkastel-Wittlich and Cochem-Zell in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. I ...

, passing the villages of Kinderbeuern and Bengel. Around beyond Bengel it changes course abruptly and swings north. A ridge prevents it from flowing further east unto the

, here just away. After breaking through the Moselle Hills the Alf finally reaches the Moselle at Alf (

Cochem-Zell Cochem-Zell (German: ''Landkreis Cochem-Zell'') is a district (''Kreis'') in the north-west of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are Mayen-Koblenz, Rhein-Hunsrück, Bernkastel-Wittlich, and Vulkaneifel. History In 1816 the di ...

) at a height of . Along its course from source to mouth, the Alf descends through , giving it an average river bed gradient of 8.6‰.

Tributaries

References

Rivers of Rhineland-Palatinate Rivers of the Eifel Rivers of Germany {{RhinelandPalatinate-river-stub