Shortly behind the once East Prussian, now Russian town of Tilsit, the Memel splits into a delta. The widest arms of this delta, the Ruß and Gilge, finally flow into the Curonian Lagoon. The river landscape is characterized by high soil moisture. Cultivation was only possible thanks to a complicated drainage system. The Gilge was also an important waterway. Today, this drainage system is decaying, the Gilge is silting up and the landscape is being renaturalized. The old villages are falling int...