Betuwe

The Betuwe, in the eastern Netherlands, is an alluvial plain formed after the last ice age and bounded on the north by the Lower Rhine and its continuation the Lek, on the south by the Waal and on the west by the Linge, a small river in the Rhine delta. With some 100 inhabitants to the sq.km (260 to the sq.mile), the Betuwe is one of the most thinly populated areas in the Netherlands.

In the past it was always an inaccessible region, like the neighboring plains of Bommelerwaard, Land van Maas en Waal and Rijk van Nijmegen. It helped the northern Netherlands in their struggle to break away from Spanish rule in the 16th and 17th centuries, since it constituted a formidable barrier to movement between north and south.

The main element in the economy of this flat plain, protected by dikes from flooding by the rivers, is agriculture. The low-lying river meadows are used for grazing, the higher river terraces for arable farming. Near the German frontier intensive fruit-growing predominates.