River
Fluvius Musalla
Mosel · Moselle
Listen to the story
From a nameless mountain meant to stand for the Vosges, the map draws the Fluvius Musalla, the Moselle, flowing to its correct mouth at Koblenz. Most rivers here, even the Rhine, are plain stylised waves, but this one tries to show some of its real loops. The bend near Trier is hugely enlarged, perhaps because the draughtsman who added the roads had placed Noviomagus too far along and stretched the river to keep that town on its banks. This spelling is found nowhere else; it seems to grow from a late form of Mosella, the little Maas, hinting that the name entered the map late.