Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Where does the Danube River originate?
As early as 1847 the following definition can already be found in the "Universallexikon des Großherzogtums Baden" (Universal Lexicon of the Grand Duchy of Baden): “Danube, the biggest river of Germany, rises at the Martinskapelle in a wild and lonely area of the Black Forest, is called Brege at its origin and forms the river Danube in Donaueschingen where it is unified with the Brigach." (German original: „Donau, der größte Fluß Deutschlands, entspringt bei der Martinskapelle in einer wilden und einsamen Gegend des Schwarzwaldes, heißt am Anfang Brege… und bildet erst in Donaueschingen, wo sie sich mit der Brigach vereinigt, die Donau.“)
The Transylvanian Plateau, high, is drained by the Mureș, Someș, Criș, and Olt rivers, as well as other tributaries of the Danube. This core of historical Transylvania roughly corresponds with nine counties of modern Romania. The plateau is almost entirely surrounded by the Eastern, Southern and Romanian Western branches of the Carpathian Mountains. The area includes the Transylvanian Plain. Other areas to the west and north are widely considered part of Transylvania. In common reference, the Western border of Transylvania has come to be identified with the present Romanian-Hungarian border, settled in the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, though geographically the two are not identical.
The name "Dniester" derives from Sarmatian "dānu nazdya" "the close river." The Dnieper, also of Sarmatian origin, derives from the opposite meaning, "the river on the far side". Alternatively, according to Vasily Abaev "Dniester" would be a blend of Scythian "dānu" "river" and Thracian "Ister", the previous name of the river, literally Dān-Ister (River Ister). The Ancient Greek name of Dniester, "Tyras" ("Τύρας"), is from Scythian "tūra", meaning "rapid." The names of the Don and Danube are also from the same Indo-Iranian word "*dānu" "river". Classical authors have also referred to it as "Danaster." These early forms, without -"i"- but with -"a"-, contradict Abaev's hypothesis. Edward Gibbon refers to the river both as the Niester and Dniester in his "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".
The county lies on a low plain, between the Prut River in the East, the Siret River in the West and South-West. They both flow into the Danube which forms the border with Tulcea County in the South-East.Due to the relief, the majority of the population in the rural areas work in agriculture. Fishing is another profitable occupation along the Danube and the Siret River. Galați is Romania's second harbour after Constanța, the navigable channel on the Danube allowing the passage of large ships. In Galați there exist the biggest metallurgical complex in Romania – the Mittal-Sidex Complex. Also the second biggest shipyard can be found also at Galați allowing ships up to 55,000 tdw to be built.
Bucharest (; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, at , on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of the Danube River and the Bulgarian border.
The modern Danube Delta began to form after 4000 BCE in a bay of the Black Sea, when the sea rose to its present level. A sandy barrier blocked the Danube bay where the river initially built its delta. Upon filling the bay with sediment, the delta advanced outside this barrier-blocked estuary after 3500 BCE, building several successive lobes: the St. George I (3500–1600 BCE), the Sulina (1600–0 BCE), the St. George II (0 BC–present) and the Chilia or Kilia (1600 CE–present). Several other internal lobes were constructed in the lakes and lagoons bordering the Danube Delta to the north (Chilia I and II) and toward the south (Dunavatz). Much of the alluvium in the delta and major expansion of its surface area in the form of lobes resulted from soil erosion associated with the clearing of forests in the Danube basin during the 1st and 2nd millennium. Geologist Liviu Giosan told "The New York Times":
The German word Aue (variant Au) means "river island, wetland, floodplain, riparian woodland", i.e. a cultivated landscape in a riparian zone. The words Aue and Au occur in a large number of German place names—including Donau, the German word for the Danube River—and refer to forests, meadows, and wetlands in river and stream lowlands and floodplains. The Danube-Auen National Park protects a large area of lowland forests, meadows, wetlands, and other riparian habitat along the Danube just downstream of Vienna.
The Southeastern Black Forest (', 154) consists mainly of the catchment areas of the upper reaches of the Danube headstreams, the and as well as the left side valleys of the north of – and thus draining from the northeast of the Southern Black Forest. To the south and west it is adjoined by the High Black Forest (', 155) with the highest summits in the whole range around the and the . Its eastern part, the Southern Black Forest Plateau, is oriented towards the Danube, but drained over the and the into the Rhine. The southern crest of the Black Forest in the west is deeply incised by the Rhine into numerous ridges. Immediately right of the above rises the relatively small Bunter Sandstone- table of the Uplands ("") in the extreme southwest of the Black Forest; morphologically, geologically and climatically it is separate from the other parts of the Southern Black Forest and, in this classification, is also counted as part of the High Black Forest.
The Balkan Peninsula is bounded by the Adriatic Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea (including the Ionian and Aegean seas) and the Marmara Sea to the south and the Black Sea to the east. Its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers. The Balkan Peninsula has a combined area of about (slightly smaller than Spain). It is more or less identical to the region known as Southeastern Europe.
The northern section of the river flows north almost entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt, then ends in a large delta and flows into the Mediterranean Sea. Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms have depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, and nearly all the cultural and historical sites of Ancient Egypt are found along riverbanks.
The Main is navigable for shipping from its mouth at the Rhine close to Mainz for to Bamberg. Since 1992, the Main has been connected to the Danube via the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and the highly regulated Altmühl river. The Main has been canalized with 34 large locks () to allow CEMT class V vessels () to navigate the total length of the river. The 16 locks in the adjacent Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and the Danube itself are of the same dimensions.
Russia has thousands of rivers and inland bodies of water, providing it with one of the world's largest surface-water resources. However, most of Russia's rivers and streams belong to the Arctic drainage basin, which lies mainly in Siberia but also includes part of European Russia. Altogether, 84 percent of Russia's surface water is located east of the Urals in rivers flowing through sparsely populated territory and into the Arctic and Pacific oceans. In contrast, areas with the highest concentrations of population, and therefore the highest demand for water supplies, tend to have the warmest climates and highest rates of evaporation. As a result, densely populated areas such as the Don and Kuban River basins north of the Caucasus have barely adequate (or in some cases inadequate) water resources.
Bulgaria occupies a portion of the eastern Balkan peninsula, bordering five countries—Greece and Turkey to the south, Macedonia and Serbia to the west, and Romania to the north. The land borders have a total length of , and the coastline has a length of . Its total area of ranks it as the world's 105th-largest country. Bulgaria's geographic coordinates are 43° N 25° E. The most notable topographical features are the Danubian Plain, the Balkan Mountains, the Thracian Plain, and the Rhodope Mountains. The southern edge of the Danubian Plain slopes upward into the foothills of the Balkans, while the Danube defines the border with Romania. The Thracian Plain is roughly triangular, beginning southeast of Sofia and broadening as it reaches the Black Sea coast.
Postwar discussion of the Danube River was begun by the United States in 1945 when President Truman proposed at the Potsdam Conference that freedom of navigation should be assured on Europe's inland waterways. Britain and France were concerned with reestablishing their prewar positions as members of the European Commission of the Danube.
In 1947, the Paris peace treaties signed with Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria guaranteed free navigation.The foreign ministers of Britain, France, the USSR, and the United States stipulated that:
Navigation on the Danube shall be free and open for the nationals, vessels of commerce and goods of all states, on a footing of equality in regard to port and navigation charges and conditions for merchant shipping. The foregoing shall not apply to traffic between ports of the same state.
Romania – unitary semi-presidential republic located in Central-Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Ukraine. It also borders Hungary, Serbia, and Moldova. It covers 238,391 square kilometres (92,043 sq mi) and has a temperate-continental climate. With 19.9 million inhabitants, it is the seventh most populous member of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth largest city in the EU. It encompasses the historical regions of Wallachia (including Dobruja), Moldavia (including Bukovina), Transylvania (including Banat, Maramureș, and Crișana). "Romania" derives from the Latin "romanus", meaning "citizen of Rome".Geography of Romania
Administrative divisions of Romania
Romania's Carpathians are differentiated into three ranges: the Eastern Carpathians, the Southern Carpathians or Transylvanian Alps, and the Western Romanian Carpathians. Each of these ranges has important distinguishing features. The Eastern Carpathians are composed of three parallel ridges that run from northwest to southeast. The westernmost ridge is an extinct volcanic range with many preserved cones and craters. The range has many large depressions, in the largest of which the city of Brașov is situated. Important mining and industrial centers as well as agricultural areas are found within these depressions. The Eastern Carpathians are covered with forests—some 32 percent of the country's woodlands are there. They also contain important ore deposits, including gold and silver, and their mineral water springs feed numerous health resorts.
Romanian descended from the Vulgar Latin spoken in the Roman provinces of Southeastern Europe. Roman inscriptions show that Latin was primarily used to the north of the so-called Jireček Line (a hypothetical boundary between the predominantly Latin- and Greek-speaking territories of the Balkan Peninsula in the Roman Empire), but the exact territory where Proto-Romanian (or Common Romanian) developed cannot certainly be determined. Most regions where Romanian is now widely spokenBessarabia, Bukovina, Crișana, Maramureș, Moldova, and significant parts of Munteniawere not incorporated in the Roman Empire. Other regionsBanat, western Muntenia, Oltenia and Transylvaniaformed the Roman province of Dacia Traiana for about 170 years. According to the "continuity" theory, modern Romanian is the direct descendant of the Latin dialect of Dacia Traiana and developed primarily in the lands now forming Romania; the concurring "immigrationist" theory maintains that Proto-Romanian was spoken in the lands to the south of the Danube and Romanian-speakers settled in most parts of modern Romania only centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire.
Transylvania is a historical region which today is located in central Romania. Bound on the east and south by its natural borders, the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended westward to the Apuseni Mountains. The term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also parts of the historical regions of Crișana and Maramureș, and occasionally the Romanian part of Banat.
Transylvania is a historical region in central and northwestern Romania. It was part of the Dacian Kingdom (1st–2nd centuries CE), Roman Dacia (2nd–3rd centuries), the Hunnic Empire (4th–5th centuries), the Kingdom of the Gepids (5th–6th centuries), the Avar Khaganate (6th–9th centuries) and the 9th century First Bulgarian Empire. During the late 9th century, western Transylvania was reached by the Hungarian conquerors and later it became part of the Kingdom of Hungary, formed in 1000. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526 it belonged to the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom, from which the Principality of Transylvania emerged. During most of the 16th and 17th centuries, the principality was a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire; however, the principality had dual suzerainty (Ottoman and Habsburg). In 1690, the Habsburgs gained possession of Transylvania through the Hungarian crown. After 1711 Habsburg control of Transylvania was consolidated, and Transylvanian princes were replaced with Habsburg imperial governors. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the separate status of Transylvania ceased; it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary (Transleithania) as part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. After World War I, Transylvania became part of Romania. In 1940 Northern Transylvania reverted to Hungary as a result of the Second Vienna Award, but it was reclaimed by Romania after the end of World War II.
The Zambezi River and several tributaries of the Congo River have their sources in Angola. A large number of rivers originate in the central uplands, but their patterns of flow are diverse and their ultimate outlets varied. A number flow in a more or less westerly course to the Atlantic Ocean, providing water for irrigation in the dry coastal strip and the potential for hydroelectric power, only some of which had been realized by 1988. Two of Angola's most important rivers, the Cuanza (Kwanza) and the Cunene (Kunene), take a more indirect route to the Atlantic, the Cuanza flowing north and the Cunene flowing south before turning west. The Cuanza is the only river wholly within Angola that is navigable—for nearly 200 kilometers from its mouth- -by boats of commercially or militarily significant size. The Congo River, whose mouth and western end form a small portion of Angola's northern border with Zaire, is also navigable.
Tara River Canyon (Montenegrin / , ), also known as the Tara River Gorge, is a canyon in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, through which runs the Tara River.
Measuring from areal of Bistrica in Montenegro to Hum in Bosnia and Herzegovina it is long, with the last 36 kilometers shared between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. The canyon at its deepest is around deep. These parameters make the Tara River Canyon one of the deepest river canyons in Europe, and indeed the world.
The Bära is a river in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The Bära is a tributary of the Danube, and originates at the confluence of the Obere Bära ("Upper Bära") and the Untere Bära ("Lower Bära"). The Bära, together with the Lower Bära, which is longer and has a larger drainage basin, has a combined length of .
Obere and Untere Bära join to form the Bära in the "Galgenwiesen" ("gallows meadow"), about four kilometers above the resort of Bärenthal. This runs moderately without significant inflow a further south-southeast in Talschlingen, draining an additional area of . Passing through Bärenthal at last it flows into Fridingen and there, near the town mill, it flows last of all in a southwesterly direction into the upper Danube, approximately at the entrance to the Fridingen Danube Bend.
Before the last ice age in the Pleistocene, the Rhine started at the southwestern tip of the Black Forest, while the waters from the Alps that today feed the Rhine were carried east by the so-called "Urdonau" (original Danube). Parts of this ancient river's bed, which was much larger than today's Danube, can still be seen in (now waterless) canyons in today's landscape of the Swabian Alb. After the Upper Rhine valley had been eroded, most waters from the Alps changed their direction and began feeding the Rhine. Today's upper Danube is but a meek reflection of the ancient one.
The Budovar is a system of natural and channeled water flow of Patka-Budovar. It originates from the eastern slopes of the Fruška Gora mountain, near the village of Čortanovci as the "Patka" (Cyrillic: "Патка") at an altitude of 215 m. The river flows to the southeast, through the village of Beška, where it is crossed by the Belgrade-Novi Sad highway. After it receives the smaller stream from the left near the village of Krčedin, the river is known as the Budovar. The river turns south and flows parallel to the highway, next to the village of Novi Karlovci, before it empties into the Danube at the village of Stari Banovci.
The Kaljina is a river in the central-northeastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, municipality of Sokolac. The source of the river is on Ozren Sarajevski, in the area of "Vrela" near Ozren village, while the majority of its course runs across Nišići karst plateau, where the river passes through a village with a same name, Kaljina, which is the largest settlement on its course. After about 26 kilometers of scenic flow from source to confluence, through the pristine nature of the plateau, the Kaljina meets Bioštica near the town of Olovo. 
The Krivaja basin is known for an abundant fish fauna, rich in species, some of which are critically endangered, such as Danube Salmon (or Danube Taimen) "(Hucho hucho)". All the Krivaja tributaries and especially its headwaters are important spawning grounds for both Danube Taimen and its prey, Common nase (Chondrostoma nasus) and Grayling (Thymallus thymallus).
The Kaljina, its parent the Bioštica, and the Stupčanica are the main source of the Krivaja waters, and all three are unspoiled in sense of water quality, their hydromorphology, natural surroundings and river biodiversity. The rich pool of indigenous salmonids such as Danube brown trout ("Salo truta fario", Danube lineage), spawning grounds for "huchen" and "nase", can only be maintained through statutory protection, and preservation of the Krivaja basin streams and rivers uninterrupted flow from construction of dams. However plans for hydropower development exist, and represent a real risk for unspoiled natural environment of the region.