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Beyond Mainz, the Rhine bends westwards and continues its hitherto stately but unspectacular journey. Suddenly, there's a dramatic change - the river widens and swings back to a northerly course, threatening the low banks on either side, while long wooded islands block the view ahead. This marks the entrance to the spectacular gorge , which, though it's only a small part of the river's total length of 1320km, is the Rhine of popular imagination. The combination of the treacherous waters, whirlpools and rocky banks lining the sharp twists of the river poses a severe test of navigational skill. Nowadays, this has been considerably eased by the digging of channels to control the movement of the river, but it has inevitably thrown up legends of shipwrecks, sirens and mermaids. The lure of the castles of the medieval robber barons, the raw elemental beauty of the landscape itself and the famous wines made from the vines which somehow cling to the lower slopes make for one of Europe's major tourist magnets. Yet the pleasure steamers are still greatly outnumbered by the long, narrow commercial barges, a reminder of the crucial role the river has played in the German economy down the centuries.
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