Leine 153200 224564323 2008-07-09T12:58:18Z Olessi 220894 Quick-adding category "Geography of Lower Saxony" (using [[WP:HOTCAT|HotCat]]) {{Infobox River | river_name = Leine | image_name = Hannover - Landtag Leine.jpg | caption = The Leine in Hanover. | origin = [[Thuringia]] | mouth = [[Aller]] | basin_countries = [[Germany]] | length = 281 km | elevation = | discharge = | watershed = }} The '''Leine''' is a river in [[Thuringia]] and [[Lower Saxony]], [[Germany]]. It is a left tributary of the [[Aller]] river (and so of the [[Weser river]] as well) and 281 km in length. [[Image:Leine Nordstemmen.JPG|thumb|200px|left|Leine near [[Nordstemmen]]]] The river's source is located close to the town of [[Leinefelde]] in Thuringia. Forty kilometers downriver, the river enters Lower Saxony and runs northwards. Important towns upstream to down along its course are [[Göttingen]], [[Einbeck]], [[Alfeld]] and [[Gronau, Lower Saxony|Gronau]], before the river enters [[Hanover]], the largest city on its banks. Downstream some forty kilometers north of Hanover, near [[Schwarmstedt]], the river joins the [[Aller]] and reaches the [[North Sea]] via the [[Weser]] connecting to and flowing north past both the oceanic [[seaports]] of [[Hanseatic]] [[Bremen]] and the much newer but equally important city of [[Bremerhaven]]. Although the river occasionally over-floods its banks, damage is usually nominal. Only in its northern (lower) reaches is it navigable by today's smallest commercial carriers, though in the past it served as an important [[railroad|pre-railway]] [[barge]] transportation artery as far up river as Göttingen. The river is somewhat polluted from industries and so not used for drinking water but the pollution was never so much as to prevent fish from living in it, and like many western rivers since the 1960s, has enjoyed successively cleaner waters since environmental controls were implemented. People enjoy [[sport fishing]] from small boats and from along the banks, although yields are normally low. At at least one point (Göttingen) the river is partially diverted into a canal that runs more or less parallel to the river. [[Category:Rivers of Germany]] [[Category:Geography of Thuringia]] [[Category:Geography of Lower Saxony]] {{Thuringia-geo-stub}} {{LowerSaxony-geo-stub}} [[cs:Leine]] [[da:Leine]] [[de:Leine (Fluss)]] [[eu:Leine]] [[fa:لاینه]] [[fr:Leine]] [[hr:Leine]] [[it:Leine]] [[lv:Leine]] [[mr:लाइन नदी]] [[nl:Leine (rivier)]] [[ja:ライネ川]] [[no:Leine (elv)]] [[nn:Leine]] [[pl:Leine]] [[ru:Лайне]] [[sv:Leine]]