River · Netherlands
Meuse
Meuse is the longest river of the Netherlands and starts far away in France. It passes through Belgium on its way north. In the Dutch delta it finally meets the North Sea.
Picture credit: PJDespa (CC BY-SA 3.0) · DimiTalen (CC0) · DimiTalen (CC0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is the Meuse?
The river starts here: Langres plateau in France.
It ends in the North Sea, through the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta.
Countries on the river: the Netherlands.
The story behind it
The Meuse is an old river that has watched castles, coal mines and cities grow along its banks. In the Netherlands it slides past Maastricht, Venlo and Rotterdam's busy waterways, carrying long barges loaded with sand, gravel and containers. Where exactly the river ends is not easy to say, because in the delta its water mixes with the Rhine and flows to the sea through several man-made channels; that is also why books give different lengths for it. The Meuse depends on rain rather than melting glaciers, so in a hot summer it can become shallow and ships must carry less. After days of rain it swells fast, and in some years it has flooded streets in Limburg. Beavers, kingfishers and returning salmon now live in its quieter side arms.
Questions children ask
How long is the Meuse?
The whole river is about 925 kilometres long. Only a smaller part of that lies in the Netherlands. Because the mouth in the delta is hard to define, sources do not fully agree on the number.
Which countries does the Meuse flow through?
Where does the Meuse end?
Its water reaches the North Sea through the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta. There rivers, canals and harbours are woven together. Big locks and dams decide how much water takes which way.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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