The Danube river’s headwaters are in southwestern Germany near the Swiss border and less than 30 miles from the headwaters of the Rhine river. The Rhine flows north and empties into the North Sea. The Danube, which is about 1770 miles long, flows north, south, and mainly east until its wide delta meets the Black Sea. The blue waters of the Danube are so well known that in 1276 the sons of Genghis Khan lead the Mongol army up them, traveling several thousand miles on their hearty Mongollian horses, raised in the rich and fertile volcanic Orhon valley of central Mongolia. After that, the Mongol empire extended from Hungary to China.

Needless to say, many tourists still visit the famous cities that have grown along the banks of the Danube. The Danube begins in the Black Forest of the Swabian mountains south of Stuttgart and flows northeast to Ulm, Germany, home to Ulm Cathedral’s 161 meters high spire, the tallest in the world, which was built in 1377. Then the Danube flows up to Regensburg, where it bends southeast to Passau at the Austrian border, through Linz and on to Vienna, the famous musical city of Strauss and many others. While Vienna is arguably the most famous city on the blue Danube, there are others. From Vienna, the river runs 37 miles east to Bratislava, the capitol of Slovakia, and the only national capitol to border two nations, Austria and Hungary. Slovakia is the eastern half of the nation known for a while as Czechoslavkia; the western half is now the Czech Republic. The Danube is the southern border of Slovakia until it reaches Vac, Hungary, where it takes a hard right and runs due south to Budapest, the ancient capital of Hungary made famous by many spy novels and its beautiful buildings overlooking the Danube.

On south runs the river to Belgrade, Serbia, one of the oldest cities in the world. Archaeologists have found ancient prehistoric cultural relics dating back several thousand years. Belgrade’s central location on the Danube has left it prey to conquerors from the Greeks to the Romans to the Franks to the Byzantines to the Ottoman Turks. It’s population is almost two million. At Belgrade the Danube is joined by two major tributaries, the Sava and the Tisa; from there it flows east and establishes the southern border of Romania with Bulgaria from Bazias to Silistra.

At Silistra it turns north and flows up to Galati, Romania, then east to its Black Sea delta, which includes part of southwestern Ukraine. The Danube Delta is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, second in size in Europe only to the Volga delta, and the best preserved delta on the European continent. It covers an area about as large as South Carolina east of Columbia with much swampy area and a moderate winter climate. It is the wintering ground for more than a hundred species of birds from the Arctic, Siberian and Mongollian regions. It is also home to many unique plants and animals.

That’s a brief look at the Danube River, from the mountains to the sea a pathway for marauders and civilizations for countless centuries.

Dan Rapp is pastor of Ohio Baptist Church and a south Ironton resident.