Places & Travel
MediumRivers and Cities Crossword
Category: Places & TravelDifficulty: Hard13 × 12
Wednesday, September 16
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Enter one letter per square. Answers run Across or Down. Omit spaces and accents; any special spelling convention is stated in the clue. This is a freeform themed grid, so some letters are not crossed.
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About This Theme
Cities often take their shape from the water running through them. This crossword asks you to travel by river name, using a specific city as the landing point for each clue. Some pairings are widely familiar; others will reward a closer knowledge of geography. Read the country or regional qualifier where one is supplied. The clues request the river, so a city you recognize is the starting information rather than the answer.
Clues
Across
- 3River crossed by Prague's Charles Bridge (6)
- 5River curving past New Orleans (11)
- 8River flowing through Rome (5)
- 10River separating Buda and Pest (6)
- 11River flowing through Paris (5)
- 12River crossed by Florence's Ponte Vecchio (4)
Down
- 1River flowing through central London (6)
- 2River whose estuary borders Lisbon (5)
- 4River flowing through central Dublin (6)
- 6River flowing through central Berlin (5)
- 7River flowing through Cairo (4)
- 9River flowing through central Melbourne (5)
Answers and Explanations
After Your Solve
This grid turns the usual place-name clue around: every city is a prompt for its river. Compare SEINE and THAMES, then the longer MISSISSIPPI and VLTAVA. A river may connect many places, so recognizing one clue does not imply that the named city is its source or mouth. The wording deliberately avoids those extra claims. When you revisit the answers, imagine locating the city on a map and following the water outward. That gives the names a relationship rather than leaving them as disconnected trivia.
- 3 acrossVLTAVA
The Charles Bridge crosses the Vltava.
- 5 acrossMISSISSIPPI
New Orleans lies on the lower Mississippi.
- 8 acrossTIBER
Rome developed beside the Tiber.
- 10 acrossDANUBE
Budapest lies on both banks of the Danube.
- 11 acrossSEINE
Paris sits on the Seine.
- 12 acrossARNO
The Ponte Vecchio spans the Arno.
- 1 downTHAMES
The Thames passes through London.
- 2 downTAGUS
The Tagus reaches the sea near Lisbon.
- 4 downLIFFEY
The Liffey divides central Dublin.
- 6 downSPREE
The Spree passes through Berlin.
- 7 downNILE
Cairo stands beside the Nile.
- 9 downYARRA
The Yarra passes through Melbourne.
Further Reading
- Theme referencebritannica.com
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