Altenau | |
Pushpin Map: | Lower Saxony |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of mouth in Lower Saxony |
Subdivision Type1: | Country |
Subdivision Name1: | Germany |
Subdivision Type2: | State |
Subdivision Name2: | Lower Saxony |
Subdivision Type3: | Reference no. |
Subdivision Name3: | DE: 4826 |
Length: | 25km (16miles) |
Source1 Location: | northeast of Eitzum in the Elm |
Source1 Elevation: | about 206 m |
Mouth Location: | Oker near Wolfenbüttel |
Mouth Elevation: | 77 m |
Basin Landmarks: | Small towns: Schöppenstedt |
Basin Size: | 140km2 |
Tributaries Right: | Sauerbach, Hachumerbach, Glue Riede |
Tributaries Left: | Rothebach |
Custom Label: | References |
The Altenau is a small river of Lower Saxony, Germany. It rises in the Elm, northeast of, a district of Schöppenstedt, and discharges from the right into the Oker near, a district of Wolfenbüttel.
Between the heights of the Asse and the Heeseberg in the south and the Elm ridge in the north stretches an almost treeless arable plain, the roughly 25 kilometre long Schöppenstedt Depression (Schöppenstedter Mulde). Here the Altenau flows in an east-west direction in a meadow valley about 500 metres wide. The source of the river lies immediately west of the watershed between the rivers Weser and Elbe. In the southern part of the depression the Altenau picks up a succession of small streams from the slopes of the Elm as it cuts through the hollow as a regulated and relatively straight stream.