Villages and towns of the Nahe valley

The headwaters of the Nahe river lie in a forest valley, 460 m above sea level, above the village of Selbach in the Saarland district of St. Wendel. The constantly changing landscape with its extensive forests, narrow ravines, and wide floodplains which open up abruptly, accompanies the river on its 112 km route to the Rhine. On the upper Nahe, in the Idar-Oberstein area, one finds semi-precious stones such as agates, amethysts, mountain crystals and chalcedony, which were commercially mined until the end of the 19th Century. In Kirn, the next largest small town, there is a splendid view from the ruins of Kyrburg. A little downstream from Bad Sobernheim, at the foot of Disibodenberg, the largest tributary, the water-rich Glan, flows into the Nahe. In the Glan valley lies Meisenheim, with an old town from the Middle Ages which is worth seeing. From Disibodenberg, the Nahe flows onwards to Bad Münster am Stein and Bad Kreuznach, where saltwater springs are the basis for the health and spa industry. In the past, these saltwater springs also served as sources for salt (salt works and graduation houses). A few kilometres northwest of Bad Kreuznach, in the Ellerbach valley, lies Sponheim with the former monastery Church of St. Martin, the most significant Romanesque building in the Nahe-Hunsrück region. Near Bingen the Nahe finally reaches the Rhine.