European watershed

Atlantic—Mediterranean watershed marker between Belfort and Mulhouse on the A36 autoroute

The Watershed runs northwards through Spain in the Iberian Peninsula towards the Bay of Biscay along the basins of Guadalquivir, Guadiana, Tagus and Douro in the west to the sources of the Ebro in Cantabria.[1] It then follows the main ridge of the Pyrenees eastwards up to Andorra, where it again turns to the north through France along the catchment areas of Garonne (with the summit of the Canal du Midi at Seuil de Naurouze), Loire and Seine in the west and that of the Rhone in the east, marked by the Cévennes mountain range between the sources of the Allier and Ardèche tributaries.

At the Belfort Gap south of the Vosges Mountains it separates the Rhone basin in the southwest from the drainage of Meuse and Rhine in the northeast, turns southwards to the Swiss Jura Mountains and passes between Lake Geneva and Lake Neuchâtel. It reaches the Bernese Alps where it crosses the Jungfrau and the Finsteraarhorn, at 4,274 m the high point of the watershed, before dropping to the Grimselpass, rising to the Dammastock before crossing the Furkapass and joining the Alpine divide near the Witenwasserenstock, the triple watershed of the Rhone, Rhine and Po rivers. East of here it crosses the Gotthard Pass and runs along the Adula Alps until it reaches the tripoint of the Rhine, Po and Danube basins at the "roof of Europe" near Piz Lunghin west of the Maloja Pass.

Trójmorski Wierch - one of six places in Europe where three watersheds meet

Rhine–Danube watershed marker near Weitnau, Germany

The divide continues northwards along the Albula Alps to Julier Pass, Albula Pass and Flüela Pass south of Davos between the catchment area of the Rhine, which empties into the North Sea via the Netherlands, and the Danube, which flows eastward emptying into the Black Sea. It enters Austria at Piz Buin in the Silvretta Alps running along the Arlberg massif and forming the border between the states of Tyrol and Vorarlberg. It reaches Bavaria, Germany via the crest of the Allgäu Alps and leaves the High Alps at the Adelegg range near Kempten.

Within the Alpine foothills it runs north of the Schussen catchment area of Lake Constance towards the sources of the Brigach and Breg headwaters of the Danube in the Black Forest. It then follows the main ridge of the Swabian and Franconian Jura with the crossing of the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal northeastwards up to the Fichtelgebirge and southeastwards along the Bohemian Forest, forming the border between Germany and the Austrian Mühlviertel and Waldviertel regions with the Czech Republic, where the large Bohemian basin is drained by the Elbe River. It again turns northeastwards along the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands-Javořice Highlands to the Śnieżnik Mountains of the Eastern Sudetes at the border with Poland, where the tripoint of Orlice, Elbe (North Sea) and Morava, Danube (Black Sea) and Eastern Neisse, Oder (Baltic Sea) is located at the peak of Trójmorski Wierch (Klepý, Klappersteine, Three seas peak, 1144 m above sea level).

The Watershed continues in eastern direction along the Jeseníky Mountains down to Moravian Gate and uphill into the Beskids, with the Oder and Vistula basins in the north, reaching the tripoint of Poland with Slovakia and Ukraine in the Bieszczady Mountains. Then, the Watershed goes northeast near the Poland–Ukraine border, passes through the city of Lviv and, via Volyn, enters Belarus. Then it runs east-northeast along Belarusian Ridge and continues to the Smolensk Oblast of Russia, ending at the tripoint with Caspian drainage basin in the Sychyovsky District, near the midpoint of Western Russia's cities Smolensk and Tver.