River · Luxembourg
Sauer
Sauer is the longest river of Luxembourg, a small country in western Europe. It begins in the Belgian Ardennes and crosses the whole land from west to east. At Wasserbillig it joins the Moselle.
Picture credit: Michielverbeek (CC BY-SA 3.0 de) · Hombre del rio (CC0) · Xocolatl (Public domain) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is the Sauer?
The river starts here: Belgian Ardennes, near Vaux-sur-Sûre.
It ends in the the Moselle at Wasserbillig.
Countries on the river: Luxembourg.
The story behind it
The Sauer has cut a deep green valley through the hills of Luxembourg. In the west its water is held back by a long dam, and the lake behind it gives many people their drinking water; in summer families swim and sail there. Further down the river makes a loop around the rock of Esch-sur-Sure, where a ruined castle stands above the roofs. Past Diekirch and Echternach the valley turns into a maze of sandstone cliffs, mossy gorges and beech forest that walkers call Little Switzerland. Kingfishers hunt along the banks, and after heavy winter rain the water climbs into the streets of the small towns. For its last stretch the Sauer forms the border with Germany, so it is not only a Luxembourg river, and people argue about which river of the country truly counts as the longest.
Questions children ask
How long is the Sauer?
The Sauer measures about 173 kilometres from end to end. That is short compared with the great rivers of the world, but long for a country as small as Luxembourg. Its first kilometres already lie in Belgium.
Which country does the Sauer flow through?
The Sauer is counted here as the longest river of Luxembourg. It crosses the country from the western hills to the eastern border. On its final stretch it also touches Germany, because the two states share the water.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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