The Hill as a state border
During the Roman era the river was a boundary between the administrative regions of Tongeren (Civitas Tungrorum) and Cologne (Civitas Agrippinensium).
From the High Middle Ages to 1795 it was the border between the territorial lordships that divided up the region of the High Fens. For example, the border between the Duchy of Limburg and the Duchy of Luxembourg ran here and, further north, in the area of the Herzogenhügel ("Duke(s) Knoll"), between Limburg and the Duchy of Jülich.
From 1815 to 1919 it divided Prussia from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and its successor state, Belgium.
In 1952 a 1.5-kilometre-long link tunnel was dug between the Hill and the Eupen Weser Reservoir, in order to better regulate the high water demand of the textile industry. For about half its length, the Hill flows through the High Fens-Eifel Nature Park.
Limburg is the southernmost of the 12 provinces of the Netherlands. It is in the southeastern part of the country, stretched out from the north, where it touches the province of Gelderland, to the south, where it internationally borders Belgium. Its northern part has the North Brabant province to its west. Its long eastern boundary is the international border with the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Much of the west border runs along the River Maas, bordering the Flemish province of Limburg, and a small part of the Walloon province of Liège. On the south end, it has borders with the Flemish exclave of Voeren and its surrounding part of Liège, Wallonia. The Vaalserberg is on the extreme south-eastern point, marking the tripoint of Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.
Limburg is a province in Belgium. It is the easternmost of the five Dutch-speaking provinces that together form the Region of Flanders, one of the three main political and cultural sub-divisions of modern Belgium.
The country of Belgium is divided into three regions. Two of these regions, the Flemish Region or Flanders, and Walloon Region, or Wallonia, are each subdivided into five provinces. The third region, the Brussels-Capital Region, is not divided into provinces, as it was originally only a small part of a province itself.
The Lahn is a 245.6-kilometer (152.6 mi)-long, right tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km).
Limburgish, also called Limburgan, Limburgian, or Limburgic, is a group of East Low Franconian varieties spoken in the Belgian and Dutch provinces both named Limburg and some neighbouring areas of Germany. The area in which it is spoken roughly fits within a wide circle from Venlo to Düsseldorf to Aachen to Maastricht to Tienen and back to Venlo. In some parts of this area it is generally used as the colloquial language in daily speech.
Eupen-Malmedy or Eupen-Malmédy is a small, predominantly German-speaking region in eastern Belgium. It consists of three administrative cantons around the small cities of Eupen, Malmedy, and Sankt Vith which encompass some 730 square kilometres (280 sq mi). In the area itself, the region is referred to as Ostbelgien. Elsewhere in Belgium, the region is commonly referred to as the East Cantons.
Roetgen is a municipality in the district of Aachen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Meuse-Rhenish is a modern term that refers to the literature written in the Middle Ages in the greater Meuse-Rhine area. This area stretches in the northern triangle roughly between the rivers Meuse and Rhine. It also applies to the Low Franconian dialects that have been spoken in that area in continuation from mediaeval times up to now.
Southeast Limburgish, also referred to as Southern Meuse-Rhenish, is a subdivision of what recently has been named Meuse-Rhenish. Both terms denote a rather compact grouping of Low Franconian varieties, spoken in the Limburg and Lower Rhineland regions, near the common Dutch/Flemish (Belgium) and Dutch/German borders. These dialectal varieties differ notably from Dutch and Flemish at the one side, and no less from German at the other. In the Netherlands and Belgium this group is often included in the generic term Limburgish. Limburgish was recently recognised as a regional language (streektaal) in the Netherlands and as such it receives moderate protection under chapter 2 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The linguistic border of the Limburgish varieties to the South is the Benrath line, to the North it is the Uerdingen line. This means Southeast Limburgish is different in nature from the other Limburgish varieties.
Lake Eupen is an artificial lake near Eupen in eastern Belgium, not far from High Fens. The lake is created by a dam which was built on the river Vesdre in 1938 but inaugurated only in 1950 by Prince Charles of Belgium. The area has a German-speaking population who refer to the river Vesdre as Weser, but which is distinct from the Weser river in North Germany.
Low Dietsch refers to a handful of transitional Limburgish–Ripuarian dialects spoken in a number of towns and villages.
The Meuse–Rhine Euroregion is a Euroregion created in 1976, with judicial status achieved in 1991. It comprises 11.000 km² and has around 3.9 million inhabitants around the city-corridor of Aachen–Maastricht–Hasselt–Liège. The seat of the region has been in Eupen, Belgium since 1 January 2007. Within a wider context, the region is part of what is called the Blue Banana European urbanisation corridor.
The German-Belgian High Fens – Eifel Nature Park, often called the North Eifel Nature Park, is a cross-border nature park with elements in the German federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate as well as the Belgian province of Liège. It has a total area of 2,485 km2 (959 sq mi).
The Belgian province of Limburg in Flanders is a region which has had many names and border changes over its long recorded history. Its modern name is a name shared with the neighbouring province of the Netherlands, with which it was for a while politically united. And in turn both of these provinces received their modern name only in the 19th century, based upon the name of the medieval Duchy of Limburg which was actually based in neighbouring Wallonia, in the town of Limbourg on the Vesdre.
The Civitas Tungrorum was a large Roman administrative district dominating what is today eastern Belgium, and the southern Netherlands. In the early days of the Roman empire it was in the province of Gallia Belgica, but it later joined the neighbouring lower Rhine river border districts, within the province of Germania Inferior. Its capital was Aduatuca Tungrorum, which is modern Tongeren.
The Steling is a mountain, 658.3 m above sea level (NN), and thus the highest point in the municipal region of Aachen. The German-Belgian border runs over the mountaintop.
