Upper Rhine /

The Upper Rhine (German: Oberrhein) is the section of the Rhine in the Upper Rhine Plain between Basel, Switzerland and Bingen, Germany. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometers 170 to 529 (the scale beginning in Konstanz and ending in Rotterdam). The "Upper Rhine" is one of four sections (High Rhine, Upper Rhine, Middle Rhine, Lower Rhine) of the river between Lake Constance and the North Sea. Countries and states along the Upper Rhine are Switzerland, France (Alsace) and the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. The largest cities along the river are Basel, Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Mainz. The Upper Rhine was straightened between 1817 and 1876 by Johann Gottfried Tulla and made navigable between 1928 and 1977. The Treaty of Versailles allows France to use the Upper Rhine for hydroelectricity in the Grand Canal d'Alsace. On the left Bank, we find the French region of Alsace and the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate; on the right bank, the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Hesse. The first few kilometers are in the Swiss city of [[Basel]. Around 35 million years ago, a rift valley of about 300 km long and 50 km wide came