The Aal is a small

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

in the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Aalen Aalen () is a former Free Imperial City located in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, about east of Stuttgart and north of Ulm. It is the seat of the Ostalbkreis district and is its largest town. It is also the large ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, Germany. It originates in the ''Dürrwiesen'' near the road bridge of the K 3326 at the western end of the street ''Gartenstraße'' through the confluence of the left Rombach and the right Sauerbach, that slightly exceeds the Rombach in length and area of basin. From here, the Aal first flows eastern, later northeastern direction. After 1.6 km, it flows on the left side of the ''Reichstädter Markt'' into the

Kocher The Kocher () is a -longincluding its source river Schwarzer Kocher right tributary of the Neckar in the north-eastern part of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The name "Kocher" originates from its Celtic name "cochan" and probably means winding, mea ...

. For the

Ancient Romans In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...

, the Aal was the reason to erect the Aalen Castle somewhat north of it, its largest equestrian fort north of the Alps. They extracted up to 30,000 liters of water daily for their approximately 1,000 horses. At the confluence of Rombach and Sauerbach, the Aal was recultivated for 5 million euros, and on September 10, 2010 the newly constructed Dürrwiesen flood retention basin was inaugurated.

Tributaries

*Rombach, left headwater, 5.8 km from the mouth most distant source, and 12.1 km². It is considered as the main headwater, the name officially used also for the total course of the Aal. *Sauerbach right headwaters, 6.5 km from muzzle most distant source and 12.9 km². *Heuchelbach, from the right near the street ''Fackelbrückenstraße'', 1.5 km and 1.1 km².

Tributaries

See also