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Meuse  (French)
Moûze  (Walloon)
Maas  (Dutch)
Maos  (Limburgish)
Dinant Meuse R01.jpg
The Meuse at Dinant
Stroomgebied van de Maas.svg
Basin of the Meuse
CountryFrance, Belgium, Netherlands
RegionWestern Europe
CitiesVerdun (France), Sedan (France), Charleville-Mézières (France), Namur (Belgium), Liège (Belgium), Maastricht (Netherlands), Venlo (Netherlands), Rotterdam (Netherlands)
Physical characteristics
 - locationPouilly-en-Bassigny, Le Châtelet-sur-Meuse, Haute-Marne, Grand Est, France
 - coordinates47°59′12″N 5°37′00″E﻿ / ﻿47.9867°N 5.6167°E﻿ / 47.9867; 5.6167
 - elevation409 m (1,342 ft)
MouthNorth Sea
 - locationHollands Diep, Noord-Brabant/Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
 - coordinates51°42′54″N 4°40′04″E﻿ / ﻿51.715°N 4.6678°E﻿ / 51.715; 4.6678
 - elevation0 m (0 ft)
Length925 km (575 mi)
Basin size34,548 km2 (13,339 sq mi)
 - average350 m3/s (12,000 cu ft/s)

The Meuse (Dutch: Maas) is a river in Western Europe. The river starts in France, goes through Belgium and the Netherlands. It ends in the North Sea.[2] The Meuse is fed mostly by rainwater.[3] It is the oldest river in the world.

History[change | change source]

From 1301, the Meuse in the Netherlands was the western border of the Holy Roman Empire. In World War II, the Meuse was a goal for the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge.[4]

References[change | change source]

  1. Marcel de Wit, Robert Leander, Adri Buishand: Extreme discharges in the Meuse basin Archived 2014-01-06 at the Wayback Machine, p. 2
    (The frequently mentioned figure of 250 m³/s refers to the Borgharen gauge near the frontier between Belgium and the Netherlands representing two thirds of the basin.)
  2. Robert Pateman; Mark Elliott, Belgium (New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2006), p. 11
  3. Wetlands: Environmental Gradients, Boundaries, and Buffers, ed. George Mulamoottil; et al. (CRC Press, 1996), p. 92
  4. Steve Kane, The 1st SS Panzer Division in the Battle of the Bulge (Bennington, VT: Merriam Press, 1997), p. 22