Kinzig (Main)

The Kinzig is a river, 86 kilometres long, in southern Hesse, Germany. It is a right tributary of the Main. It is 82 km long. Its source is in the Spessart hills at Sterbfritz, near Schlüchtern. The Kinzig flows into the Main in Hanau. The Main-Kinzig-Kreis (district) was named after the river. The towns along the Kinzig are Schlüchtern, Steinau an der Straße, Bad Soden-Salmünster, Gelnhausen, and Hanau. The Kinzig is first recorded in 815 A.D. as Chinzicha.This river played a part in the Battle of Hanau in October 1813, as Napoleon retreated back to the Rhine, after his defeat at the Battle of Leipzig.GeographySourceThe source of the Kinzig is located at a height of about, in the vicinity of an Aussiedlerhof, a recently established farmstead outside a village, south of Sterbfritz in the municipality of Sinntal. It is a small spring, enclosed in sandstone, that has an outflow pipe. The headstream that rises here flows for a few metres towards the northwest where it units with a longer headstream.