History of the Ruhr and steel industries have declined drastically History of the Ruhr The actual boundaries of the Ruhr vary slightly depending on the source, but a good working definition is to define the Lippe and Ruhr as its northern and southern boundaries respectively, the Rhine as its western boundary, and the town of Hamm as the eastern limit. In the Middle Ages, local power was vested primarily in the counts ("Grafen") of Berg, Mark and Cleves. The left bank of the Rhine was held by the Archbishop of Cologne. The Hellweg was an important trade route crossing the region from Duisburg to
Mannheim Harbour Mannheim Harbour Mannheim Harbour, named "Rhein-Neckar-Hafen Mannheim", is a river port on the Rhine in Mannheim, at the confluence of the Rhine and the Neckar in Baden-Wurttemberg. It consists out of 4 main harbour areas "Handelshafen", "Rheinauhafen", "Altrheinhafen" and "Industriehafen", which are divided into 14 single harbour basins and 3 river docks. It is one of the most important inland ports in Europe. The port covers 3.42 km² of water (2.83 km² Rhine, 0.59 km² Neckar) and 8.635 km² of dockland. The total land area covered from the harbour is about 11.31 km² and it is the biggest inland port