Urft (river)

The Urft is a 46.4-kilometre-long (28.8 mi) right-hand tributary of the Rur in the county of Euskirchen in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Next the river runs parallel to the Roman Eifel Aqueduct, which begins at the old Gronrecht Mill (Gronrechtsmühle) near the Grüner Pütz, flows through Urft, where it meets the Gillesbach and, below the village, the Kuttenbach.

Next the Urft flows into the Urft Reservoir, which channels its waters usually into a tunnel - the Kermeter Gallery - through the Kermeter ridge north of the reservoir and through the turbines of the Heimbach Power Station with its outflow into the compensating basin of the Heimbach Dam and thus eventually into the Rur.

Through this artificial outflow tunnel the mouth of the Urft is near the Heimbach village of Hasenfeld at Rur 111.1 km (69.0 mi).

[3] The catchment area of the Urft covers 372.564 km2 (143.85 sq mi),[1] and drains via the Rur, Meuse and Hollands Diep into the North Sea.

Urft Reservoir basin at low water and the Victor Neels Bridge, Urft and, on the horizon, the tower of the Vogelsang Fortress
Urft Reservoir and immediately below it the upper basin of the Rur Dam