The Silo Canal, or Silokanal in German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, is a canal

Canal

Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...

 in the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 state of Brandenburg

Brandenburg

Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...

. It provides a short cut for vessels navigating the River Havel

Havel

The Havel is a river in north-eastern Germany, flowing through the German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe river and in length...

, avoiding the winding and constricted navigation through the city of Brandenburg an der Havel.

The 5.26 kilometres (3.3 mi) long canal follows the route of the Silograben of 1782, and was constructed between 1907 and 1910. At its upstream end, the Vorstadtschleuse Brandenburg lock descends 1 metres (3.3 ft) into the lower level of the Havel, known as the Brandenburger Niederhavel, where a junction is also made with the Beetzsee

Beetzsee

Beetzsee is a municipality in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It takes its name from the Beetzsee, a large lake....

. From here the canal proper skirts the northern edge of the city, eventually flowing into the Quenzsee

Quenzsee

Quenzsee is a lake in the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated to the west of the city of Brandenburg an der Havel, and is one of a number of directly linked lakes, along with the Breitlingsee, Möserscher See, Plauer See and Wendsee....

, which links to the Plauer See

Plauer See (Brandenburg)

Plauer See is a lake in the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated to the west of the city of Brandenburg an der Havel, and is one of a number of directly linked lakes, along with the Breitlingsee, Möserscher See, Quenzsee and Wendsee....

 and hence the River Havel and the Elbe–Havel Canal.

Whilst commercial shipping uses the Silo Canal, leisure traffic tends to use the older and smaller dimensioned Brandenburg City Canal

Brandenburg City Canal

The Brandenburg City Canal, or Brandenburger Stadtkanal in German, is a canal in the German state of Brandenburg. It provides a route through the centre of the city of Brandenburg an der Havel....

, which diverges upstream of the Vorstadtschleuse Brandenburg and passes through the city centre, before descending through the Stadtschleuse Brandenburg lock. This traffic then follows the Brandenburger Niederhavel downstream into the Breitlingsee

Breitlingsee

The Breitlingsee, or Breitling See, is a lake in the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated to the west of the city of Brandenburg an der Havel, and is one of a number of directly linked lakes, along with the Möserscher See, Plauer See, Quenzsee and Wendsee.The lake has a surface area of...

before rejoining the main route in the Plauer See.