Editing Geography of Austria (section)

==== River Danube ====
The [[Danube]] has its source near [[Donaueschingen]] in southwestern Germany and flows through Austria before emptying into the [[Black Sea]].<ref name=":0" /> It is the only major European river that flows eastwards, and its importance as an inland waterway has been enhanced by the completion in 1992 of the [[Rhine-Main-Danube Canal]] in [[Bavaria]], which connects the rivers [[Rhine]] and [[Main (river)|Main]] with the Danube and makes [[barge]] traffic from the [[North Sea]] to the Black Sea possible.<ref name=":0" />

The major rivers north of the watershed of the Austrian Alps (the [[Inn (river)|Inn]] in Tyrol, the [[Salzach]] in Salzburg, and the [[Enns (river)|Enns]] in Styria and Upper Austria) are direct tributaries of the Danube and flow north into the Danube valley, whereas the rivers south of the watershed in central and eastern Austria (the [[Gail (river)|Gail]] and [[Drava|Drau]] rivers in Carinthia and the [[Mürz]] and [[Mur (river)|Mur]] in Styria) flow south into the drainage system of the Drau, which eventually empties into the Danube in [[Serbia]].<ref name=":0" /> Consequently, central and eastern Austria are geographically oriented away from the watershed of the Alps: the provinces of Upper Austria and Lower Austria toward the Danube and the provinces of Carinthia and Styria toward the Drau.<ref name=":0" />