The Aar (in German Aare) is the greatest river which both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland.
Its total length (including all bends) from its source to its junction with the Rhine comprises about 291 km (181 miles), during which distance it descends 1565 m (5135 feet), while it drains an area is 17,620 km2 (6804 square miles).
It rises in the great Aar glaciers, in the canton of Berne, and west of the Grimsel Pass. It runs east to the Grimsel Hospice, and then northwest through the Hasli valley, forming on the way the magnificent waterfall of the Handegg, 46 m (151 feet), past Guttannen, and pierces the limestone barrier of the Kirchet by a grand gorge, before reaching Meiringen, situated in a plain. A little beyond, near Brienz, the river expands into Lake Brienz, where it becomes navigable. Near the west end of that lake it receives its first important affluent, the Lütschine (left), and then runs across the swampy plain of the Bodoli, between Interlaken (left) and Unterseen (right), before again expanding in order to form Lake Thun.
Near the west end of that lake it receives on the left the Kander, which has just before been joined by the Simme; on flowing out of the lake it passes Thun, and then circles the lofty bluff on which the town of Berne stands. It soon changes its northwesterly for a due westerly direction, but after receiving the Saane or Sarine (left) turns north till near Aarberg. There, in one of the big Swiss engineering feats of the 19th century, the river which had turned the countryside north of Bern into swamps with its frequent floodings, was diverted by the Hagneck Canal into Lake Biel, from the upper end of which it issues through the Nidau Canal and then runs east to Büren. The lake swallows the huge amounts of gravel and melted snow the river brings from the Alps and the former swamps have become fruitful plains, the vegetable garden of Switzerland.
Henceforth the Aar flows northeast for a long distance, past the ambassador town Solothurn (below which the Grosse Emme flows in on the right), Aarburg (where it is joined by the Wigger, right), Olten, Aarau, near which is the junction with the Suhr on the right, and Wildegg, where the Hallwiler Aa falls in on the right. A short way beyond, below Brugg, it receives first the Reuss (right), and very shortly afterwards the Limmat (right). It now turns due north, and soon becomes itself an affluent of the Rhine (left), which it surpasses in volume when they unite at Coblenz, opposite Waldshut.
