The authors reconstruct past and present discourses surrounding the Rawa River (Upper Silesia), drawing on previous research and highlighting shared themes in interdisciplinary approaches. What these approaches have in common is the conviction that the existing information and data on the river are insufficient, and that any answer to the question, “What is the Rawa?” would inevitably be overly superficial, vague, and perhaps even universally applicable. It remains difficult to define the Rawa’s potential and function, its physical presence in the urban fabric, and, ultimately, its location and materiality as experienced by individuals and communities in Silesian cities.