The Danube (the German Donau) is Europe's second-longest river.
It begins 2,000 ft. above sea level at the confluence of two Black Forest streams in Donaueschingen, West Germany, and travels 1,750-1,800 mi. to the Black Sea, through eight countries and many of Europe's great cities. Once it leaves Bavaria, the Danube passes its leading port, Linz, Austria, and moves on to Vienna, where Johann Strauss immortalized it in song in the 19th century. Old Vienna is actually 3 mi. west of the Danube, but a diversionary canal passes through the city's center. Passing out of Austria, the river splits into three channels--one of which constitutes the Czechoslovakian-Hungarian border--but later comes together again near Budapest, the Hungarian capital. On the river's north bank sits Bratislava, the old Slovakian capital. From Hungary the river rolls peacefully into Yugoslavia, intersects the capital, Belgrade, then becomes the Yugoslavian-Romanian border, and later the Bulgarian-Romanian border, before finally emptying into the Black Sea, where its delta has created 1,000 sq. mi. of marshy wilderness.
During the 7th century BC, Greek sailors reached the lower Danube and sailed upstream, conducting a brisk trade. They were familiar with the whole of the river's lower course and named it the Ister. The Danube later served as the northern boundary of the vast Roman Empire and was called the Danuvius. A Roman fleet patrolled its waters, and the strongholds along its shores.
Known to history as one of the long-standing frontiers of the Roman Empire, the river flows through — or forms a part of the borders of — ten countries: Germany (7.5%), Austria (10.3%), Slovakia (5.8%)
The Danube basin was the site of some of the earliest human cultures. the Danubian Neolithic cultures include the Linear Pottery cultures of the mid-Danube basin. The third millennium BC Vučedol culture (from the Vučedol site near Vukovar, Croatia) is famous for its ceramics. Many sites of the sixth-to-third millemmium BC Vinča culture are sited along the Danube. The river was part of the Roman empire's Limes Germanicus.
Of importance for the Danube is also the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR). The ICPDR is an international organisation consisting of 13 member states (Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine) and the European Union. ICPDR, established in 1998, deals not only with the Danube itself, but with the whole Danube River Basin, which includes also its tributaries and the ground water resources. The goal of the ICPDR is to implement the Danube River Protection Convention, promoting and coordinating sustainable and equitable water management, including conservation, improvement and rational use of waters for the benefit of the Danube River Basin countries and their people., Hungary (11.7%), Croatia (4.5%), Serbia, Bulgaria (5.2%), Romania (28.9%), Moldova (1.7%), and Ukraine (3.8%); in addition, the drainage basin includes parts of nine more countries: Italy (0.15%), Poland (0.09%), Switzerland (0.32%), Czech Republic (2.6%), Slovenia (2.2%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (4.8%), Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, and Albania (0.03%).
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