The city of Salzburg is situated by the river Salzach, a river that runs across the entire province in a bended curve and shapes the landscape of it. The Salzach is 225 kilometres long and one of the most important rivers of the Austrian Alps. By international visitors, it is often incorrectly referred to as "Salzburg River".

This is probably due to the similarity in the names. In fact, "Salz" means salt and "Ache" is an old German term for a river. The name therefore refers to the importance that the Salzach had as a transportation route for salt from Hallein and other mining places of the province up to the late 18th century.