Lower Rhine region
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Lower Rhine region or Niederrhein is a region around the Lower Rhine section of the river Rhine in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany between approximately Neuss and Düsseldorf in the South and the Dutch border around Emmerich in the North. As the region can be defined either geographically, linguistically, culturally, or by political, economic and traffic relations throughout the centuries, as well as by more recent political subdivisions, its precise borders are disputable and occasionally may be seen as extending beyond the Dutch border. Yet, while the Dutch half of the Lower Rhine geographic area is called Nederrijn in Dutch, it does practically not overlap with the German Niederrhein region, although one term is the translation of the other.
A cultural bond of the German Lower Rhine region is its Low Rhenish language, which belongs to the Cleves languages of the Rhine-Maaslands language group. Other typicalities of the area include the predominantly Catholic background as well as the Rhenish Carnival tradition.
The area basically covers the districts of Cleves, Wesel, Viersen and Neuss as well as the independent cities of Mönchengladbach and Krefeld. On its disputed fringes Duisburg, parts of Oberhausen as well as Düsseldorf can be seen as part of the Lower Rhine.
The Lower Rhine region's landscape is mostly flat green grass land with wide views of the horizon. Sights include the historic town centers of Cleves and Xanten, as well as the latter town's Roman archeological museum, the castle "Schloss Moyland" in Bedburg-Hau or the Catholic pilgrimage town of Kevelaer.
