Sources The source of the Kinzig (
Kinzigquelle) is located at a height of about , in the vicinity of an
Aussiedlerhof, a recently established farmstead outside a village, south of
Sterbfritz in the municipality of
Sinntal. It is a small spring, enclosed in
sandstone, that has an outflow pipe. The headstream that rises here flows for a few metres towards the northwest where it unites with a longer headstream.
Course From its source, the Kinzig runs northwest and forms the boundary between the
Hessian Rhön Nature Park and the
Hessian Spessart Nature Park as far as
Schlüchtern. West of Schlüchtern the Kinzig flows in a southwesterly direction and separates the
Vogelsberg hills to the north from the
Spessart to the south. Between
Steinau and
Ahl is the
Kinzig Dam. In its lower reaches the Kinzig is used by canoeists. Shortly before
Hanau the Kinzig flows through the so-called
Bulau. This woodland area was formerly used by the
US Army as an exercise area and is due to lack of population is still very natural. During high water, water flows rapidly through many ditches in the
water meadows so that, in spring, extensive
bear garlic meadows appear. After about 82 kilometres, the river empties into the
Main in Hanau at a height of about . Here, there are balcony-like views of the castle of
Philippsruhe or the Main river port. The observation platform comprises two interleaved terraces linked by a steel wall.
Places on the Kinzig (in downstream order) •
Sterbfritz (source) •
Sannerz •
Vollmerz •
Herolz •
Schlüchtern •
Niederzell •
Steinau an der Straße •
Ahl •
Salmünster •
Neudorf •
Wächtersbach •
Wirtheim •
Haitz •
Gelnhausen •
Lieblos •
Rothenbergen •
Langenselbold •
Erlensee •
Niederrodenbach •
Hanau (mouth on the
Main)
Tributaries The Kinzig catchment covers an area of 1,058 square kilometres. ;The most important tributaries (>10 km) are (in downstream order): • the Steinebach, Ulmbach,
Salz,
Bracht, Orb, Bieber, Birkigsbach,
Gründau, Lache and
Fallbach. TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:xxxx ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:25 PlotArea = left:10 right:10 top:10 bottom:40 AlignBars = justify Colors = id:canvas value:rgb(0.97,0.97,0.97) BackgroundColors = canvas:canvas Period = from:0 till:35 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:0 gridcolor:blue BarData= barset:Flusslänge PlotData= width:18 fontsize:M textcolor:black color:skyblue shift:(20,-6) anchor:from barset:Flusslänge from:start till:31.5 text:Bracht (31.5 km) from:start till:30.2 text:Gründau (30.2 km) from:start till:29.7 text:Salz (29.7 km) from:start till:24.2 text:Fallbach (24.2 km) from:start till:23.2 text:Steinebach (23.2 km) from:start till:16.8 text:Bieber (16.8 km) from:start till:13.3 text:Ulmbach (13.3 km) from:start till:12.8 text:Birkingsbach (12.8 km) from:start till:12.4 text:Lache (12.4 km) from:start till:11.0 text:Orb (11.0 km) TextData= fontsize:M pos:(10,20) text:km ==References==