Göta

Göta (in Swedish, Götaälv), river and canal, south-western Sweden. The river is 80 km (50 mi) long and drains Lake Vänern into the Kattegat at Göteborg. It is navigable throughout its entire length, although it contains a number of falls and rapids. Navigation has been made possible past the falls at Trollhättan by a series of locks. The Göta Canal, of which the river forms a part, is a 386-km-long (240-mi-long) system of coastal waterways, lakes, rivers, and canals connecting Stockholm and Göteborg. It includes the Göta Canal proper, a 158-km-long (98-mi-long) canal from Sjötorp on Lake Vänern to Mem on the Baltic Sea, built in two sections on either side of Lake Vättern between 1810 and 1832. The Göta Canal system as a whole contains 58 locks, of which 20 raise it to its highest point of 92 m (302 ft) between Lakes Vänern and Vättern.