The Luhe is a roughly 26 kilometres (16.2 mi) long, left headstream

Tributary

A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...

 of the River Naab

Naab

The Naab is a river in Bavaria, Germany, and is a left tributary of the Danube. It is approx. long, including its main source river Waldnaab....

 in the Upper Palatine Forest in Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, southern Germany

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...

.

It rises near the hamlet of Wampenhof near Waldthurn

Waldthurn

Waldthurn is a municipality in the district of Neustadt in Bavaria in Germany....

, flows through Waldthurn, Roggenstein, Kaimling, past Michldorf and Leuchtenberg

Leuchtenberg

Leuchtenberg is a municipality in the district of Neustadt in Bavaria in Germany, essentially a suburb of nearby Weiden in der Oberpfalz, and a historical region in Old Germany governed by the Landgrave of Leuchtenberg....

 and through Lückenrieth and Luhe

Luhe-Wildenau

Luhe-Wildenau is a municipality in the district of Neustadt in Bavaria in Germany....

-Markt. There it discharges into the Naab.

Due to the river's very steep descent a lot of mills and hammer forge

Forge

A forge is a hearth used for forging. The term "forge" can also refer to the workplace of a smith or a blacksmith, although the term smithy is then more commonly used.The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as a hearth, for heating metals...

s have been built along its course. Its catchment area

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

 is used almost entirely for agricultural purposes with the result that the water of the Luhe is of good quality, enabling many species of fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

, crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s and mussel

Mussel

The common name mussel is used for members of several families of clams or bivalvia mollusca, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which are often more or less rounded or oval.The...

s to thrive there.

Its most important tributaries are the Trausenbach, the Lerau and the Gleitsbach.