Steinach, Brook in Heiligkreuzsteinach, Germany

The Steinach is a roughly 22 km long river in southern Hesse and northern Baden-Württemberg, flowing south through the Odenwald. It rises near Ober-Abtsteinach at about 490 m above sea level, passes Heiligkreuzsteinach and Schönau, and empties into the Neckar at Neckarsteinach. Its catchment covers almost 70 km².

The Steinach rises at about 490 m above sea level, some 200 metres north of the cemetery at Ober-Abtsteinach, and runs almost always southwards. After roughly 4.5 km its shallow valley deepens and wooded slopes close in; it crosses into Baden-Württemberg and reaches Heiligkreuzsteinach after about 10 km, where the Eiterbach joins from the left. The Eiterbach, 9.0 km long with a 14.2 km² catchment, is nearly an equal headstream at that point.

The river's name, Steinach, recurs in the names of the villages it passes: Abtsteinach, Heiligkreuzsteinach and Neckarsteinach. Near Heiligkreuzsteinach the Eiterbach joins from the left after 9 km, bringing a catchment of 14.2 km², nearly as large as the Steinach's own 15.4 km² at that point.

The Steinach rises at about 490 m above sea level just north of the Ober-Abtsteinach cemetery and runs south for 22.2 km, crossing the Hesse–Baden-Württemberg border twice before reaching the Neckar at Neckarsteinach. Walkers can follow it through Ober- and Unter-Abtsteinach, Heiligkreuzsteinach, Altneudorf, Schönau and Lindenbach; the lower valley near the mouth is overhung by slopes rising more than 250 m.

The Eiterbach, which joins the Steinach at Heiligkreuzsteinach, is 9.0 km long with a 14.2 km² catchment, while the Steinach itself has run only 9.8 km by that point; the tributary is thus an almost equal headstream.