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{{Short description|Second-longest river in Europe}}{{About|the river}}{{Redirect|Istrus|the Greek figure|Istrus (mythology)|the ancient city|Histria (ancient city)}}{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}{{Use American English|date=June 2020}}

factoids

| image = View from Gellért Hill to the Danube, Hungary - Budapest (28493220635).jpg| image_caption = The Danube in Budapest



factoids



| map_caption = Course of the Danube| subdivision_type1 = CountriesGermanySlovakiaCroatiaBulgariaMoldova|Ukraine}}| subdivision_type5 = CitiesUlmIngolstadt>RegensburgPassau>LinzVienna>BratislavaGyőr>KomáromBudapest>DunaújvárosMohácsApatin>VukovarIlokBačka Palanka>Novi Sad>Sremski Karlovci>ZemunBelgrade>PančevoSmederevo>Drobeta-Turnu SeverinVidin>GiurgiuRuse, Bulgaria>RuseCălărași>BrăilaGalați>Reni, Ukraine>IzmailKiliia>Tulcea|Sulina}}2,850miENCYCLOPEDIA=ENCYCLOPæDIA BRITANNICA ACCESS-DATE=30 APRIL 2022, Iron Gates) {{cvt>150abbr=on}}; Lower Danube (Brăila) {{cvtm|abbr=on}}300abbr=on}}; Middle Danube {{cvtm800abbr=on}}; Lower Danube {{cvtm1,000abbr=on}}HTTPS://WWW.OSCE.ORG/FILES/F/DOCUMENTS/0/8/32944.PDF >TITLE=HYDROMORPHOLOGICAL BALANCE OF THE DANUBE RIVER CHANNEL ON THE SECTOR BETWEEN BAZIAS (KM 1072.2) AND DANUBE DELTA INLET (KM 80.5) FIRST=CONSTANTIN OSCE.ORG >ACCESS-DATE=30 APRIL 2022, HTTP://WWW.ICPDR.ORG>TITLE=ICPDR, 1,500abbr=on}}; Lower Danube {{cvtm1abbr=on}} (Upper Danube)8abbr=on}}; Middle Danube {{cvtm10abbr=on}}, {{cvtmIron Gates); Lower Danube {{cvt>9abbr=on}}HTTP://WWW.HIDMET.GOV.RS>TITLE=REPUBLIC HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL SERVICE OF SERBIA, Iron Gates) {{cvt>90abbr=on}}; Lower Danube {{cvtm|abbr=on}}| discharge1_location= Before the Danube Delta1,790cuft/surl=https://www.limnology.ro/water2012/Proceedings/001.pdf last1=Gâştescu last2=Țuchiu work=Water resources and wetlands: Conference Proceedings editor-first1=Petre editor-first2=William editor-first3=Petre date=2012 page=18}} 6,484.3cuft/sweblink Points of view expressed by the Romanian authorities and scientific research on the Ukraine's document "Annotated Report on Scientific Research – Complex Environmental Monitoring for the Danube – Black Sea Deep Water Navigation Canal operation in 2017–2018. The Sea Approach Canal Zone", unece.org, 30 April 2022, 15,900cuft/s|abbr=on}} Passau, Bavaria, Germany{{cvt>30|km}} before town580cuft/s|abbr=on}}| discharge4_location= Vienna, Austria1,900cuft/s|abbr=on}}| discharge3_location= Budapest, Hungary2,350cuft/s|abbr=on}}| discharge2_location= Belgrade, Serbia5,600cuft/s|abbr=on}} Breg (river)>Breg| source1_location = Furtwangen im Schwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, Germany48440818display=inline}}1,078abbr=on}}| source2 = Brigach Sankt Georgen im Schwarzwald>St. Georgen im Schwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, Germany48240851display=inline}}940abbr=on}}| source_confluence_location = Donaueschingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany47030813display=inline}}| mouth = Danube Delta| mouth_location = Romania4532941display=inline,title}}801,463mi2|abbr=on}}}}{{River Danube routemap}}The Danube ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|d|æ|n|.|j|uː|b}} {{respell|DAN|yoob}}; {{small|known by various names in other languages}}) is the second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest south into the Black Sea. A large and historically important river, it was once a frontier of the Roman Empire. In the 21st century, it connects ten European countries, running through their territories or marking a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for {{convert|2850|km|mi|sp=us|abbr=on}}, passing through or bordering Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Ukraine. Among the many cities on the river are four national capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrade. Its drainage basin amounts to 817,000 km² and extends into nine more countries. The Danube's longest headstream Breg rises in Furtwangen im Schwarzwald, while the river carries its name from its source confluence in the palace park in Donaueschingen onwards. Since ancient times, the Danube has been a traditional trade route in Europe. Today, {{convert|2415|km|mi|abbr=on}} of its total length are navigable. The Danube is linked to the North Sea via the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, connecting the Danube at Kelheim with the Main at Bamberg. The river is also an important source of hydropower and drinking water. The Danube river basin is home to such fish species as pike, zander, huchen, Wels catfish, burbot and tench. It is also home to numerous diverse carp and sturgeon, as well as salmon and trout. A few species of euryhaline fish, such as European seabass, mullet, and eel, inhabit the Danube Delta and the lower portion of the river.

Names and etymology

Other names

{{List to table|date=November 2023}}Today the river carries its name from its source confluence in Donaueschingen onwards. Its longest headstream Breg rises in Furtwangen im Schwarzwald.The river was known to the ancient Greeks as the ()WEB,weblink Herodotus, The Histories, book 4, chapter 48, www.perseus.tufts.edu, from a root possibly also encountered in the ancient name of the Dniester ( in Latin, in Greek) and akin to Iranic 'swift' and Sanskrit () 'swift', from the PIE {{PIE|*isro-}}, {{PIE|*sreu}} 'to flow'.JOURNAL, Straturi etimologice reflectate în hidronimia românească, Oliviu, Felecan, Nicolae, Felecan, 254, Quaderns de Filologia: Estudis Lingüístics, 20, 2015, 1, Universitat de València, 10.7203/qfilologia.20.7521,weblink free, In the Middle Ages, the Greek was borrowed into Italian as and into Turkic languages as ; the latter was further borrowed into Romanian as a regionalism ().The Thraco-Phrygian name was ,JOURNAL, Matoas, the Thraco-Phrygian name for the Danube, and the IE root *madų, Robert, Dyer, Glotta, 52, 1974, 1/2, 91–95, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (GmbH & Co. KG), 40266286, "the bringer of luck".BOOK, Marjeta, Å aÅ¡el Kos, sl, en,weblink 42–50, Reka kot božanstvo â€” Sava v antiki, River as a Deity â€“ The Sava in Antiquity, Jožef, Barachini, Ukročena lepotica: Sava in njene zgodbe, The Tamed Beauty: The Sava and Its Stories, 978-961-92735-0-0, 2009, Sevnica, Javni zavod za kulturo, Å¡port, turizem in mladinske dejavnosti,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160304041135weblink">weblink 4 March 2016, The Middle Mongolian name for the Danube was transliterated as Tho-na in 1829 by Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat.BOOK, Abel-Rémusat, Jean-Pierre, Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat, Nouveaus Mélanges Asiatiques, 2, Paris, Schubart and Heidelhoff, 1829, 96–97, The modern languages spoken in the Danube basin all use names related to :

({{IPA-es|daˈnuβjo|IPA}});

, .{{citation |page=624 |publisher=Akademia e Shkencave e RPS te Shqiperise, Instituti i Kultures Popullore, Sektori i Prozes dhe Poezise |editor1=Kozma Vasili |editor2=Arsen Mustaqi |title=Lirika popullore |trans-title=Folk lyrics |series=Folklor Shqiptar |volume=4 |language=sq |issue=3 – Kenge per nizamet dhe kurbetin |year=1981 |location=Tirana |quote=Tunë-a lumi i Danubit }}

Etymology

Danube is an Old European river name derived from the Celtic 'danu' or 'don'Triad 35. Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, pp. 280–285. (both Celtic gods), which itself derived from the Proto-Indo-European {{PIE|*deh₂nu}}. Other European river names from the same root include the Dunaj, Dzvina/Daugava, Don, Donets, Dnieper, Dniestr, Dysna and Tana/Deatnu. In Rigvedic Sanskrit, danu (दनु) means "fluid, dewdrop" and danuja (दनु-ज) means "born from danu" or "born from dew-drops". In Avestan, the same word means "river". The Finnish word for Danube is {{wikt-lang|fi|Tonava}}, which is most likely derived from the name of the river in German, . Its Sámi name means "Great River". It is possible that in Scythian as in Avestan was a generic word for "river": Dnieper and Dniestr, from Danapris and Danastius, are presumed to continue Scythian "far river" and "near river", respectively.BOOK, J. P. Mallory, Mallory, J.P, Victor H. Mair, Victor H., Mair, The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West,weblink registration, London, Thames and Hudson, 2000, 106, 978-0-500-05101-6, . BOOK,weblink V. I. Adaev, ru:Осетинский язык и фольклор, Ossetian language and folklore, Moscow, Publishing house of Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1949, 236, ru, In Latin, the Danube was variously known as , , BOOK, Ancient Languages of the Balkans, Part One, Paris, Mouton, 1976, 144, or Hister. The Latin name is masculine, as are all its Slavic names, except Slovene (the name of the Rhine is also masculine in Latin, most of the Slavic languages, as well as in German). The German (Early Modern German , , in BOOK, Sebastian Franck, Weltbuch, 1542,weblink 81, Sebastian Franck, e.g. in BOOK, Leonhard Thurneisser zum Thurn, Pison, 1572,weblink 186, Spelling from the 17th century. Middle High German )BOOK, Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik, 407, Deutsche Grammatik, is feminine, as it has been re-interpreted as containing the suffix -ouwe "wetland".Romanian differs from other surrounding languages in designating the river with a feminine term, ({{IPA-ro|ˈdunəre̯a|IPA}}). This form was not inherited from Latin, although Romanian is a Romance language. To explain the loss of the Latin name, scholars who suppose that Romanian developed near the large river propose that the Romanian name descends from a hypothetical Thracian . The Proto-Indo-European root of this presumed name is related to the Iranic word ""/"", while the supposed suffix is encountered in the ancient name of the Ialomița River, Naparis, and in the unidentified Miliare river mentioned by Jordanes in his Getica. Gábor Vékony says that this hypothesis is not plausible, because the Greeks borrowed the Istros form from the native Thracians. He proposes that the Romanian name is a loanword from a Turkic language (Cuman or Pecheneg).

Geography

File:Danube basin.png|thumb|The Danube basin ]]File:Bregquelle 01.jpg|thumb|The hydrogeographical source of the Danube at St. Martin's Chapel in Furtwangen im Schwarzwald: the Bregquelle, the source of the Danube's longest headstream, the Breg, where the Danube is symbolized by the Roman allegory for the river, Danuvius.]]File:Donauquelle Donaueschingen im Sommer.jpg|thumb|The symbolical source of the Danube in Donaueschingen: the source of the Donaubach (Danube Brook), which flows into the BrigachBrigachClassified as an international waterway, it originates in the town of Donaueschingen, in the Black Forest of Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Brigach and Breg. The Danube then flows southeast for about {{cvt|2730|km}}, passing through four capital cities (Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrade) before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine.Once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire, the river passes through or touches the borders of 10 countries: Romania (29.0% of basin area), Hungary (11.6%), Serbia (10.2%), Austria (10.0%), Germany (7.0%), Bulgaria (5.9%), Slovakia (5.9%), Croatia (4.4%), Ukraine (3.8%), and Moldova (1.6%).WEB,weblink Countries of the Danube River Basin, International Commission for the protection of the Danube River, 13 November 2010, Its drainage basin extends into nine more (ten if Kosovo is included).

Drainage basin

In addition to the bordering countries (see above), the drainage basin includes parts of nine more countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina (4.6% of the basin area), the Czech Republic (2.9%), Slovenia (2.0%), Montenegro (0.9%), Switzerland (0.2%), Italy (

• Upper Section: From spring to Devín Gate, at the border of Austria and Slovakia. Danube remains a characteristic mountain river until Passau, with average bottom gradient 0.0012% (12 ppm), from Passau to Devín Gate the gradient lessens to 0.0006% (6 ppm).
• Middle Section: From Devín Gate to Iron Gate, at the border of Serbia and Romania. The riverbed widens and the average bottom gradient becomes only 0.00006% (0.6 ppm).
• Lower Section: From Iron Gate to Sulina, with average gradient as little as 0.00003% (0.3 ppm).

Modern navigation

{{expand section|how the "Iron Gate" relates to ship navigation?|date=November 2022}}File:Parliament Budapest Hungary.jpg|thumb|The Danube in BudapestBudapestFile:DanubedeltaSulinaarm2.jpg|thumb|Fisherman in the Danube DeltaDanube DeltaFile:Freight-ship-danube-320x240.ogg|thumb|Freight ship on the Danube near ViennaViennaThe Danube is navigable by ocean ships from the Black Sea to Brăila in Romania (the maritime river sector), and further on by river ships to Kelheim, Bavaria, Germany; smaller craft can navigate further upstream to Ulm, Württemberg, Germany. About 60 of its tributaries are also navigable.Since the completion of the German Rhine–Main–Danube Canal in 1992, the river has been part of a trans-European waterway from Rotterdam on the North Sea to Sulina on the Black Sea, a distance of {{convert|3500|km|sp=us|abbr=on}}. In 1994 the Danube was declared one of ten Pan-European transport corridors, routes in Central and Eastern Europe that required major investment over the following ten to fifteen years.{{cn|date=November 2022}} The amount of goods transported on the Danube increased to about 100 million tons in 1987. In 1999, transport on the river was made difficult by the NATO bombing of three bridges in Serbia during the Kosovo War. Clearance of the resulting debris was completed in 2002, and a temporary pontoon bridge that hampered navigation was removed in 2005.{{cn|date=November 2022}}At the Iron Gate, the Danube flows through a gorge that forms part of the boundary between Serbia and Romania; it contains the Iron Gate I Hydroelectric Power Station dam, followed at about {{convert|60|km|sp=us|abbr=on}} downstream (outside the gorge) by the Iron Gate II Hydroelectric Power Station. On 13 April 2006, a record peak discharge at Iron Gate Dam reached {{convert|15400|m3/s|sp=us|abbr=on}}.There are three artificial waterways built on the Danube: the Danube-Tisa-Danube Canal (DTD) in the Banat and Bačka regions (Vojvodina, northern province of Serbia); the {{convert|64|km|sp=us|abbr=on}} Danube-Black Sea Canal, between Cernavodă and Constanța (Romania) finished in 1984, shortens the distance to the Black Sea by {{convert|400|km|sp=us|abbr=on}}; the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal is about {{convert|171|km|sp=us|abbr=on}}, finished in 1992, linking the North Sea to the Black Sea.File:Guerre d'orient, combat sur le Danube.jpg|thumb|Combat between Russian and Turkish forces on the Danube in 1854, during the Crimean WarCrimean WarThe 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. Many sites of the sixth-to-third millennium BCE Vinča culture, (Vinča, Serbia) are sited along the Danube. The third millennium BCE Vučedol culture (from the Vučedol site near Vukovar, Croatia) is famous for its ceramics.Darius the Great, king of Persia, crossed the river in the late 6th century BCE to invade European Scythia and to subdue the Scythians.Alexander the Great defeated the Triballian king Syrmus and the northern barbarian Thracian and Illyrian tribes by advancing from Macedonia as far as the Danube in 336 BCE.Under the Romans, the Danube formed the border of the Empire with the tribes to the north almost from its source to its mouth. At the same time, it was a route for the transport of troops and the supply of settlements downstream. From 37 CE to the reign of the Emperor Valentinian I (364–375) the Danubian Limes was the northeastern border of the Empire, with occasional interruptions such as the fall of the Danubian Limes in 259. The crossing of the Danube into Dacia was achieved by the Imperium Romanum, first in two battles in 102 and then in 106 after the construction of a bridge in 101 near the garrison town of Drobeta at the Iron Gate. This victory over Dacia under Decebalus enabled the Province of Dacia to be created, but in 271 it was abandoned by emperor Aurelian.Avars used the river as their southeastern border in the 6th century.At the end of the Okeanos Potamos, is the holy island of Alba (Leuke, Pytho Nisi, Isle of Snakes), sacred to the Pelasgian (and later, Greek) Apollo, greeting the sun rising in the east. Hecateus Abderitas refers to Apollo's island from the region of the Hyperboreans, in the Okeanos. It was on Leuke, in one version of his legend, that the hero Achilles was buried (to this day, one of the mouths of the Danube is called Chilia). Old Romanian folk songs recount a white monastery on a white island with nine priests.