Rodna Mountains in the context of "Someș (river)"

The Someșul Mare (Great Someș, Hungarian: Nagy-Szamos) is a river in north-western Romania, originating in the Bistrița-Năsăud County in the Rodna Mountains at the confluence of two headwaters — the Preluci and the Zmeu. The Someșul Mare flows west through Rodna, Năsăud and Beclean, until it meets the Someșul Mic at Mica, upstream of Dej. Its length is 130 km (81 mi) and its basin size is 5,033 km (1,943 sq mi). Downstream from its confluence with the Someșul Mic, the river is called Someș.

The Someș (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈsomeʃ]) or Szamos (German: Somesch or Samosch) is a left tributary of the Tisza in Hungary and Romania. It has a length of 415 km (258 mi) (including its source river Someșul Mare), of which 50 km are in Hungary. The Someș is the fifth largest river by length and volume in Romania. The hydrographic basin forms by the confluence at Mica, a commune about 4 km upstream of Dej, of Someșul Mare and Someșul Mic rivers. Someșul Mic (formed by the confluence of Someșul Rece with Someșul Cald) originates in the Apuseni Mountains, and Someșul Mare springs from the Rodna Mountains.

Someșul Mare has a length of 130 km and an area of 5,033 km and a slight asymmetry in favor of the left side of the basin. For the entire basin of Someș, the asymmetry on left becomes pronounced between Dej and Ardusat to change in the opposite direction after receiving the Lăpuș on the right side. The valley of Someșul Mare has much auriferous alluvium that, until the early 20th century, were brought to the surface using traditional tools. Specialists say that in the Someșul Mare were found grains of gold of 21 carats.

The Zipser Germans, Zipser Saxons, or, simply, just Zipsers (German: Zipser or Zipser Deutsche, Romanian: Țipțeri, Hungarian: Cipszer, Cipszerek, or Szepességi szászok, Slovak: Spišskí Nemci) are a German-speaking (more specifically Zipser German-speaking as native dialect) sub-ethnic group in Central-Eastern Europe, part of the German diaspora, and national minority in both Slovakia and Romania (there are also Zipser German settlements in the Zakarpattia Oblast, in the historical region of Carpathian Ruthenia, present-day western Ukraine). Along with the Sudeten Germans (German: Sudetendeutsche), the Zipser Germans were one of the two most important ethnic German groups in the former Czechoslovakia. An occasional variation of their name as 'Tzipsers' can also be found in academic articles. Former Slovak President Rudolf Schuster is partly Zipser German and grew up in Medzev (German: Metzenseifen).

The Zipser Germans were previously native to the Szepes County (German: Zips; Slovak: Spiš, Hungarian: Szepes) of Upper Hungary—today mostly north-eastern Slovakia—as that region was settled by colonists from present-day central Germany (and other parts of contemporary Germany) during the High Middle Ages, more specifically beginning in the mid 12th century, as part of the Ostsiedlung. Beginning in at least the 18th century, many members of this German ethnic sub-group migrated to southern Bukovina, Maramureș, Transylvania, and in the mountainous Banat (all of the aforementioned regions situated in contemporary Romania). Most of the Zipser German community in Romania lives in Maramureș County and across the Rodna Mountains respectively.