Swist


The Swist is a stream, long, in the German Rhineland. It rises on the northern edge of the Eifel at 330 metres above sea level and empties rom the right and southeast into the Rhine tributary, the Erft, between Weilerswist and . Occasionally the Swist is also called the Swistbach, and locals often just call it der Bach.
The Swist flows through the municipality Swisttal, the town of Meckenheim and Flerzheim. There are cycle paths by the side of the stream along this stretch. The Swist gave its name to Swisttal and the town of Weilerswist. Its source area is situated at the northern edge of the Eifel.

Geography

Course

Its source lies at in the northern part of the Eifel in the Ahr Hills, north of the village of Kalenborn in the collective municipality of Altenahr in the county of Ahrweiler. The Swist has an average gradient of 5 ‰ and flows initially to Vettelhoven in a northeasterly direction and then descends at a gradient of just 1.3 ‰ through the Fore-Eifel. It continues along the western slopes of the hill ridge in the börde landscape of the Rheinbach Loess Plateau through Meckenheim, Flerzheim, Morenhoven, Heimerzheim and. At the Swist empties into the Erft between Weilerswist and Bliesheim.

Catchment

Its catchment area lies between that of the Rhine near Bonn and its smaller tributaries like the Hardtbach or to the northwest and that of its parent river, the Erft around Euskirchen right in the west and peters out quickly towards the north-northwest. It is rural and, in the open country, arable fields predominate. Around the upper courses of the stream and its especially along its important left-hand tributaries there is a large contiguous forest as well as pastures and meadows. The largest part of the catchment belongs to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the source region is in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Tributaries

The most important tributary of the Swist is the Steinbach, which joins from the left at river kilometre 15.7 as the Jungbach. Between and Essig it bears the name Orbach. The stream has a catchment of which is about 17% that of the Swist. The tributaries of the Swist are listed below.

Name
Position

Location
Length

Catchment

Mouth height

DGKZ
Kahlenborner Bach/Swistbach42.939right0.6 2742 112
Buchenwaldbach42.407left1.0 2742 114
Nonnenbach39.185right2.21.950 2742 12
Bach von Alteheck38.103right1.51.262 2742 132
N.N.35,251left1.1 2742 134
Unnamed stream32;660left1.7 2742 136
Unnamed stream31,899right1.4 2742 138
Essigbach29.680left5.97.6291822742 14
Mühlengraben/Spießgraben29,334right1.44.4051782742 16
Altendorfer Bach28.585left10.011.5341762742 2
Ersdorfer Bach27.247left7.55.2671702742 32
Morsbach/Wormersdorfer Bach24.692left6.712.3421612742 34
Unnamed stream22.675right3.1 1552742 392
Mühlengraben19.088right2.1 1462742 394
Eulenbach19.066links12.323.0591462742 4
Wallbach17.589left8.922.6001432742 52
Steinbach/Orbach/Jungbach15.717left20.548.2271402742 6
Buschbach13.482right8.221.9651342742 74
Schießbach12.676left13.716.6271322742 8
Mühlengraben12.141right1.6 1312742 912
Uhlshover Graben12.01left1,8131
Kottengrover Graben11.485right0.70.7361302742 92
Kriegshover Bach9.733right4.28.0421272742 94
Müggenhausener Fließ3.999left5.211.8461132742 96
Weilerswister Mühlgraben0.675left2.9 1072742 992

River history

Originally the River Ahr flowed in what is now the riverbed of the Swist. After the uplifting of the Ahr Hills, and its route northwards was barred, the Ahr tried to find a way directly to the Rhine.
In places it is said that the Swist is the longest stream in Europe This probably goes back to when its course was marked by wide meanders in the area of the low gradient between Vettelhoven and its mouth. Since the straightening of the Swist in the early 20th century and certainly no later than its canalisation in the 1960s it has probably lost this record.

Historic bridges

The Roman aqueduct to Cologne crossed the valley of the Swist between Meckenheim and Rheinbach on an arched bridge which was 1,400 metres long and up to 10 metres high. Archaeologists have worked out that the bridge must have once had 295 arches with an inside width of. Nothing is left of the structure apart from a low strip of rubble. In Lützermiel the foundations of a Prussian bridge have survived. The bridge once carried the district road from Bonn to Schleiden, built in 1823, over the Swist.