The Sarine (; ) or Saane () is a major river of Switzerland.6th longest, 7th largest basin, see

List of rivers of Switzerland The following is a list of rivers of Switzerland (and tributaries thereof). Included rivers flow either entirely or partly through Switzerland or along its international borders. Swiss rivers belong to five drainage basins, i.e. of the Rhine, th ...

It is long and has a drainage area of . It is a tributary of the

Aare The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to i ...

. The Sarine rises in the

Bernese Alps The Bernese Alps are a mountain range of the Alps located in western Switzerland. Although the name suggests that they are located in the Berner Oberland region of the canton of Bern, portions of the Bernese Alps are in the adjacent cantons of Va ...

, near

Sanetschhorn The Sanetschhore (Swiss German, Germanized: ''Sanetschhorn'') or Mont Brun in French is a mountain of the Diablerets massif in the Bernese Alps, overlooking the Sanetsch Pass in Switzerland. It is located between the cantons of canton of Valais, ...

, in the

Canton of Valais Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...

. It forms the Lac de Sénin (French; ) reservoir at 2034 m, and then enters the

Canton of Bern The canton of Bern, or Berne (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. The bear is the heraldic symbol of the c ...

, traversing the Sanetsch falls between 1900 and 1400 m. It then forms the westernmost valley of the

Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland (; ; ), sometimes also known as the Bernese Highlands, is the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern. It is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context it is referred to as ''Oberland'' witho ...

, flowing past Gsteig,

Gstaad Gstaad ( , ) is a town in the German language, German-speaking section of the Canton of Bern in southwestern Switzerland. It is part of the municipality of Saanen and is known as a major ski resort and a popular destination amongst high society ...

and Saanen in the Obersimmental-Saanen district. Downstream of Saanen, at 982 m, it enters the

Canton of Vaud Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms bears the motto "Liberté et patrie" on a white-green bicolou ...

, passing Rougemont,

Château-d'Œx Château-d'Œx () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District, Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut. History Château-d'Œx is first men ...

and Rossinière, forming the ''Lac du Vernex'' at 859 m. At 833, it traverses the ''Creux de l'Enfer'' and enters the

Canton of Fribourg The canton of Fribourg, also canton of Freiburg, is located in western Switzerland. The canton is bilingual, with French spoken by more than two thirds of the citizens and German by a little more than a quarter. Both are official languages in th ...

, forming ''Lac de Montbovon'' at 777 m.From this point, it more or less follows the linguistic boundary between French- and

German-speaking Switzerland The German-speaking part of Switzerland ( ; ; ; ) comprises about 65 percent of Switzerland (North Western Switzerland, Eastern Switzerland, Central Switzerland, most of the Swiss Plateau and the greater part of the Swiss Alps). The variety ...

across the bilingual canton of Fribourg (and is often identified as the geographic representation of the ''

Röstigraben (; , also transcribed to reflect the Swiss German pronunciation ) is a term used to refer to the cultural boundary between German-speaking Switzerland and Romandy, the French-speaking parts. There is also the term , referring to the boundary b ...

'' division of Switzerland). Passing Villars-sous-Mont, Enney, Gruyères and Broc, it reaches Lac de la Gruyère at 677 m. It then continues in serpentines towards

Fribourg or is the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and district of Sarine (district), La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, adminis ...

itself; the historical city was built in 1157 on a peninsula of the Sarine, protected on three sides by steep cliffs. Downstream of Fribourg, it widens into the '' Schiffenensee'' reservoir at 532 m (built 1963), and is then taken to Laupen in a channel, where it is joined by the

Sense A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the surroundings through the detection of Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. Although, in some cultures, five human senses were traditio ...

. Flowing north for another 6 km, it finally joins the

Aar The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to i ...

just downstream of Wohlensee, at 461 m, some west of

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

Reservoirs

References

Swisstopo Swisstopo is the official name for the Swiss Federal Office of Topography, Switzerland's national mapping agency. The current name was made official in 2002. It had been used as the domain name for the homepage of the instituteswisstopo.admi ...

: Map ''Saane/Sarine 1:100000'',

External links

Sarine Waterlevels
at Broc (682 m)
Sarine Waterlevels
at

(532 m)
Saane Waterlevels
at Laupen (480 m)
Saane Information
at Gümmenen, Mühleberg (473 m) * Rivers of Switzerland Bern–Fribourg border Rivers of the canton of Bern Rivers of Valais Rivers of the canton of Fribourg Rivers of the canton of Vaud {{Switzerland-river-stub

Reservoirs

See also

References

External links