Lower Moselle

The Lower Moselle (German: Untermosel or Terrassenmosel) is the name given to the lower reaches of the Moselle river - just under 100 kilometres long - in Germany between Pünderich and the Moselle's confluence with the Rhine at Koblenz. The Lower Moselle landscape differs from that of the Middle and Upper Moselle, much of it forming a narrower valley with high and steep sides in places. On the cut banks of the river that are oriented towards the south and west, vineyards are managed, often on the tiniest, terraced strips of land on steep hillslopes.

The upgrading of the Moselle into a waterway for big ships in the 1960s has permanently changed the appearance of the river and its banks. Five changes of level between Koblenz and Zell in order to build locks for large ships have changed a riverbed that was narrow in places and wide in others with gently sloping banks into a canal-like waterway that is contained by artificial walls and rock embankments in the areas of the locks.

The Lower Moselle begins in the wine village of Pünderich and ends at its confluence in the city of Koblenz where it empties into the Rhine at the Deutsches Eck ("German Corner"). It separates the Central Upland mountain ranges of the Eifel and Hunsrück and flows through the two counties of Cochem-Zell and Mayen-Koblenz in the north of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The settlements in the valley are predominantly small villages that increased in area towards the end of the 20th century. Towns with central administrative functions are Zell (pop. in 2009 = 4,200) and Cochem (pop. in 2009 = 4,900) Tourism and wine growing are important economic factors in this region.

The first division of the river into the Lower and Middle/Upper Moselle may have been a consequence of the foundation of the Roman provinces of Germania superior (Upper Germania) and Gallia Belgica in the 1st century AD. The border between the two administrations crossed the river between the present-day Moselle towns of Traben-Trarbach and Zell. In the Late Middle Ages this line divided the Upper (Obere) and Lower Archdiocese (Untere Erzstift) of the Electorate of Trier. From 1798 to 1814 it formed the boundary between the French departements of Saar and Rhine and Moselle, from 1824 to 1999 the provinces of Koblenz and Trier. It is also where the line of 50° latitude runs, which was often seen as a critical boundary for wine growing in northern countries. Biologists see in the Mediterranean fauna of the microclimatically favourable southern hillsides of the Moselle valley the markings of a northern boundary of the Mediterranean region. The state wine authorities call the Lower Moselle the Burg Cochem Wine Area (Weinbaubereich Burg Cochem).

...
Wikipedia