Читать книгу The Moselle Cycle Route. From the source to the Rhine at Koblenz онлайн

19 страница из 42

In addition to the main route, variants are given using the Boucles de la Moselle to visit Toul (see above) and via the small country of Luxembourg (Stage 9A) using mostly dedicated asphalt cycle tracks for a circular tour, visiting the capital. Further excursions, up the Saar valley to Merzig (Excursion 1) and through the Rhine gorge to St Goar (Excursion 2), use waymarked and mostly asphalt cycle tracks.

Natural environment

Physical geography

The Moselle is a left-bank tributary of the Rhine, draining a basin of over 28,000km2. Its main catchment includes the western side of the Vosges Mountains through tributaries Meurthe, Seille and Saar, and the southern part of the Eifel range through the Sauer and Kyll. In its length of 538km it falls 653m, flows through France for 296km, forms the German–Luxembourg border for 36km, then flows 206km through Germany.

There are three distinct geological parts to the Moselle basin, all shaped by geomorphic events further south approximately 30 million years ago, when the Alps were pushed up by the collision of the African and European tectonic plates. This caused rippling of the landmass to the north, creating successive ridges that form the limestone Jura (northern Switzerland) and Vosges (France). Further north, pre-existing sandstone and slate mountains (Hunsrück) and volcanic remnants (Eifel) were raised further. The Moselle rises high on the western slopes of the Vosges and firstly flows down through the foothills. Secondly, it enters a wide valley between limestone hills filled with tertiary deposits of sand and gravel. Much of this has been extracted for building aggregates, creating a large number of man-made lakes. Finally, when the river reaches the Hunsrück it flows through a deep meandering gorge, caused by the river cutting down through the slate rocks as they were pushed up by the rising Alps.