Urft (river)

The Urft near Sarreguemines in Urftstausee at low tide

The Urft is a 46.4 km long right tributary of the Rur in the North Rhine -Westphalian district of Euskirchen. In the town there is the village of Kall Urft, the flows through the Urft.

Origin of the name

The name of the Urft has evolved from " Urd - apa ". The origin of the word " Urd " is unknown, " apa " is Celtic and has the meaning " brook". The Urft 1075 had the name " Urdefa " 1419 " Orfft " and 1503 " Oyrfft ". The place Urft derives its name from the river.

Course

The Urft rises in the northern Eifel High Fens -Eifel. Your source is located in the Dahlem Forest, 3.8 km west of the hamlet of Dahlem Schmidtheim and 2.3 km (in each case a straight line ) northwest of the airfield Dahlem Binz.

Initially, the Urft flows through Schmidtheim from where to it is accompanied by the Eifel track and what the Danes Bach opens, and by Blankenheim Forest, where it picks up the Wisselbach and is crossed by the highway 258. After that flow to, among other things the Treisbach, the running brook and the Haubach. On Steinrütsch which lies on the boundary of Cute home and where the remains of a Burgus and a small fort located, opens the Wave Stream in the Urft and in Nettersheim the Geneva Bach. Then the river runs - parallel to the beginning at the former Gronrechtsmühle the Green Pütz Roman Eifel aqueduct - by Urft where the brook joins Gilles, and below the village opens the cowl a Bach. Thereafter, the Urft flows through Sötenich Kall and where it leaves both the Eifel circuit and the Eifel aqueduct and the Kallbach takes to run from now on along the Oleftalbahn to and through Anstois. Then it flows through Gemuend where the olefin opens and the federal highways 265 and 266 cross the Urft in the village. There she leaves the Oleftalbahn to then flow through Malsbenden.

Then the Urft flows into the Urftstausee, who runs his water usually in the north of the dam lying ridge Kermeter by the Kermeterstollen and through the turbines of the power plant Heimbach with dortigem drain into the equalization tank of the dam Heimbach and thus in the Rur. Through these artificial tunnels drain the Urftmündung is shifted to approximately located at Heimbacher district hares field Rur - km 111.1. Before the construction of Urftstaumauer the river flowed naturally above the hamlet Simmerather Rurberg about the Rur - km 123.5 in the Rur. Today the water from the upper lake of the local Rursee flooded the old ( estuary near) underflow of Urft up to the air side of the Urftstaumauer. Thither the reservoir water flows during flood situations over the overflow weir of Urftstaumauer.

Catchment and inflows

The catchment area of ​​372.564 km ² Urft is great. Its tributaries include: