Danube

The Danube (ancient Danuvius, Iranian *dānu, meaning "river" or "stream", ancient Greek Ἴστρος Istros) is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river. It originates in the Black Forest in Germany as two smaller rivers — the Brigach and the Breg — which join at Donaueschingen; it is from this point that it is known as the Danube. The river flows eastwards for a distance of some 2850 km (1771 miles), passing through several Central and Eastern European capitals, before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine.

The Danube has been an important international waterway for centuries, as it remains today. Known to history as one of the long-standing frontiers of the Roman Empire, the river flows through — or forms a part of the borders of — ten countries: Germany (7.5%), Austria (10.3%), Slovakia (5.8%), Hungary (11.7%), Croatia (4.5%), Serbia, Bulgaria (5.2%), Romania (28.9%), Moldova (1.7%), and Ukraine (3.8%); in addition, the drainage basin includes parts of ten more countries: Italy (0.15%), Poland (0.09%), Switzerland (0.32%), Czech Republic (2.6%), Slovenia (2.2%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (4.8%), Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, and Albania (0.03%).

The names of the river: (German: Donau; Slovak: Dunaj; Albanian: Danubi; Polish: Dunaj; Hungarian: Duna; Croatian: Dunav; Serbian: Дунав, Dunav; Bulgarian: Дунав (Dunav); Romanian: Dunăre; Ukrainian: Дунай (Dunay); Italian: Danubio; Portuguese: Danúbio; Latin: Danuvius; Modern Greek: Δούναβης (Doúnavis); Turkish: Tuna; Slovenian: Donava; local Yiddish: Duner - דונער and Tine - טינע) are all ultimately derived from the Iranian *dānu, meaning "river" or "stream". Don still means both "water" and "river" in the Ossetic language. Other major European river names with this Indo-European root for "stream" include the Donets, Dnieper, Dniester, the Don River, Russia and the River Don, England.