The Upper Rhine is the section of the Rhine in the Upper Rhine Plain between Basel in Switzerland and Bingen in Germany. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometres 170 to 529.
The Upper Rhine is one of four sections of the river between Lake Constance and the North Sea. The countries and states along the Upper Rhine are Switzerland, France and the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. The largest cities along the river are Basel, Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Mainz.
The Upper Rhine was straightened between 1817 and 1876 by Johann Gottfried Tulla and made navigable between 1928 and 1977. The Treaty of Versailles allows France to use the Upper Rhine for hydroelectricity in the Grand Canal d'Alsace.
On the left bank are the French region of Alsace and the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate; on the right bank are the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Hesse. The first few kilometres are in the Swiss city of Basel.