Saane/Sarine

The Sarine or Saane is a major Swiss river. It is 128 kilometers (80 miles) long and has a drainage area of 1,892 kilometers (731 sq mi). It is a branch of the Aare.

The Sarine flows through the Bernese Alps near Sanetschhorn in the Canton of Valais. At 2034 m, it forms the Lac de Sénin reservoir and then enters the Canton of Bern, passing through the Sanetsch falls between 1900 and 1400 m. It then flows through the Obersimmental-Saanen district, forming the westernmost valley of the Bernese Oberland, passing through Gsteig, Gstaad, and Saanen. It enters the Canton of Vaud at 982 m downstream of Saanen, passing Rougemont, Château-d'x, and Rossinière before forming the Lac du Vernex at 859 m. It crosses the Creux de l'Enfer at 833 and enters the Canton of Fribourg, where it forms Lac de Montbovon at 777 meters. From here, it roughly follows the linguistic boundary between French- and German-speaking Switzerland across the bilingual canton of Fribourg (and is frequently identified as the geographical representation of Switzerland's Röstigraben division). It passes through Villars-sur-Mont, Enney, Gruyères, and Broc before arriving at 677 m at Lac de la Gruyère. It then continues in serpentines towards Fribourg, which was founded in 1157 on a peninsula of the Sarine River, protected on three sides by steep cliffs. It widens into the Schiffenensee reservoir at 532 m (built 1963) downstream of Fribourg, and is then channeled to Laupen, where it is joined by the Sense. Flowing north for another 6 kilometers, it eventually joins the Aar just downstream of Wohlensee, at 461 meters, about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) west of Bern.

Length: 128 km (80 mi)