High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Saale, also known as the Saxon Saale (German: Sächsische Saale) and Thuringian Saale (German: Thüringische Saale), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the Main, or the Saale in Lower Saxony, a tributary of the Leine.The Saale originates on the slope of the Waldstein mountain near Zell in the Fichtelgebirge in Upper Franconia (Bavaria), at an altitude of 728 m. It pursues a winding course in a northern direction, and after passing the manufacturing town of Hof, enters Thuringia. It flows amid well-wooded low mountains of the Thuringian Forest until it reaches the valley of Saalfeld. After leaving Saalfeld the Saale reaches Rudolstadt.