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Mouth of the Rhone. Reaching Lyon, the most populous city on its course, the Rhône receives its biggest tributary, the Saône, with an average flow of 473 m 3 /s (16,700 cu ft/s), compared to the Rhône's 600 m 3 /s (21,000 cu ft/s) at this point. [8] From this confluence, the Rhône follows a southward course.
- Overview
- Physiography
Rhône River, historic river of Switzerland and France and one of the most significant waterways of Europe. It is the only major river flowing directly to the Mediterranean Sea and is thoroughly Alpine in character. In this respect it differs markedly from its northern neighbour, the Rhine, which leaves all of its Alpine characteristics behind when it leaves Switzerland. The scenic and often wild course of the Rhône, the characteristics of the water flowing in it, and the way it has been used by humans have all been shaped by the influences of the mountains, right down to the river mouth, where sediments marking the Rhône’s birth in an Alpine glacier are carried into the warmer waters of the Mediterranean.
The Rhône is 505 miles (813 km) long and has a drainage basin of some 37,750 square miles (97,775 square km). The course of the river can be divided into three sectors, lying respectively in the Alps, between the Alps and the Jura Mountains and through the latter, and finally in the topographical furrow of Alpine origin running from the city of Lyon to the sea.
The Rhône originates in the Swiss Alps, upstream from Lake Geneva. It comes into being at an elevation of about 6,000 feet (1,830 metres), emerging from the Rhône Glacier, which descends the south flank of the Dammastock, a nearly 12,000-foot (3,700-metre) peak. The river then traverses the Gletsch Basin, from which it escapes through a gorge, and flows along the floor of the Goms Valley at an elevation between 4,000 and 4,600 feet (1,200 and 1,400 metres). It next enters another gorge before reaching the plain of the Valais, which extends between the towns of Brig and Martigny, and descends in elevation 2,300 to 1,600 feet (700 to 500 metres). In crossing this high and rugged mountain area, the river makes successive use of two structural troughs: the first runs between two ancient crystalline rock massifs—the Aare and the Gotthard—and farther downstream the second runs between the arched rock mass of the Bernese Alps and, on the south, the massive rock face of the Pennine Alps. From Brig onward the landscape changes. During the last Ice Age a large glacier, fed by several small ones, plowed down the valley floor of the Valais and, except for some harder rock obstacles found near the town of Sion, succeeded in widening and deepening the narrow valley floor. As it did so, it held back both the upper Rhône and those of its tributaries that come down from the Pennine Alps. When the ice sheets retreated, both the tributaries—the Vispa, Navigenze, Borgne, and Drance—and the Rhône cut new deep gorges to connect their lower courses to the new valley floor. These gorges have created considerable difficulty for modern transportation, necessitating a series of hairpin-bend road links.
After Martigny, where the valley floor is wider, the youthful Rhône thrusts northward at a right angle, cutting across the Alps through a transverse valley. At first, near the town of Saint-Maurice, this is no more than a small gorge, but it soon becomes wider and flatter. There, too, the river route has been assisted by structural factors, specifically by a dip in the crystalline rock massifs running from Mont Blanc to the Aare and by the discontinuity between the limestone masses of the Dents du Midi and of the Dent de Morcles. Across the mountain barrier the muddy waters of the Rhône enter another wide plain surrounded by high mountains and then plunge into the clearer, stiller waters of Lake Geneva, forming an enlarging delta.
Britannica Quiz
Water and its Varying Forms
The second sector of the Rhône’s course commences with Lake Geneva, large (224 square miles [580 square km]) and deep (1,000 feet [300 metres]) and lying between Switzerland and France in a basin hollowed out of the less-resistant terrain by the former Rhône Glacier. Upon leaving Lake Geneva, which has turned the course of the river to the southwest and decanted the sediment from its waters, the Rhône very quickly regains in full the milky colour so characteristic of Alpine rivers. Just below the city of Geneva, it receives its powerful tributary the Arve, which rushes down from the glaciers of Mont Blanc.
From its juncture with the Arve to the French city of Lyon, the Rhône has to cross a difficult obstacle, the undulating series of ridges forming the Jura Mountains. It does this by cutting through deep longitudinal valleys called vaux and transverse valleys called cluses, which were formed when the Jura Mountains were uplifted during the Alpine orogeny. As a result, the river follows a complicated zigzag course. At the town of Bellegarde the river is joined from the north by the Valserine and, swinging south, plunges into a deep gorge now submerged in the 14-mile- (22-km-) long Génissiat Reservoir. In the wider sections of its course in this region, the Rhône runs through glacier-excavated basins that its own deposits have barely filled, causing intermittent marshy areas. It is also joined by the Ain, from the north, and, on the left bank, by the Fier and Guiers. The river next widens, the terrain becoming less hilly, and at Le Parc (some 95 miles [150 km] above Lyon) becomes officially navigable, although the average depth is no more than three feet.
Inspired by the relentless Rhone river that runs from the Alps in Switzerland to the Southeastern part of France, the Rhone name represents the idea of pursuing a dynamic and versatile life. Building the strength to shape your own path to progress along the way. Nothing is more flexible than water, yet over time it has the ability to cut ...
Discover the Rhone department in south-east France, named after the river that crosses it. Explore its diverse regions, from the historic city of Lyon to the Beaujolais wine country, and find hotels, flights and car hire.
The “Pont d’Avignon”, St Benezet Bridge, made famous by the song, was built in the late 12th century. Breached several times by the strong Rhone currents, it was finally abandoned in 1680 and eventually replaced by a suspension bridge. Four arches still remain and on one of them is the Romanesque St Nicholas Chapel.
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