Saar (river)

The Saar (German: [zaːɐ̯] ; French: Sarre [saʁ] ) is a river in northeastern France and western Germany, and a right tributary of the Moselle. It rises in the Vosges mountains on the border of Alsace and Lorraine and flows northwards into the Moselle near Trier. It has two headstreams (the Sarre Rouge and Sarre Blanche, which join in Lorquin), that both start near Mont Donon, the highest peak of the northern Vosges. After 246 kilometres (153 mi)—129 kilometres (80 mi) in France and on the French–German border, then 117 kilometres (73 mi) in Germany—the Saar flows into the Moselle at Konz, a town in Rhineland-Palatinate located between Trier and the border with Luxembourg. It has a catchment area of 7,431 square kilometres (2,869 mi2). The Saar flows through the following departments of France, states of Germany and towns: Moselle, France: Abreschviller (Sarre Rouge), Lorquin, Sarrebourg, Fénétrange Bas-Rhin, France: Sarre-Union Moselle, France: Sarralbe, Sarreguemines Saarland, Germany: Saarbrücken, Völklingen, Wadgassen, Bous, Saarlouis, Dillingen, Merzig Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany: Saarburg, Konz. On the banks of the Saar is the Völklingen Ironworks, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site. At Mettlach, the Saar passes the well-known Saar loop. The lower Saar in Rhineland-Palatinate is a winegrowing region of some importance, producing mostly Riesling. Much more wine was grown on the banks of the Saar before the early 20th century, with the winegrowing region reaching further up from the river to Saarbrücken. In the early 21st century, some farmers from the Saarland area have started experimenting with winegrowing again.