North Limburg

(Local Name: Noord-Limburg) Some way up the Maas is North Limburg (Noord-Limburg), much of which is flat and featureless, traversed by rivers and canals and dotted with large farms. The Maas, with its characteristic landscape patterned by hedges, divides the region into two - to the east a long tract of territory along the German frontier, to the west the Peel country in Noord- Brabant, with large areas of bogland. In the extreme northeast steep hills - the most southerly hills in the Netherlands, which came into being during the Ice Age - rise out of the Maas valley.

The main industrial centers in North Limburg are Venlo, Roermond and the smaller towns of Weert and Venray. Venlo has become an important center of the transport industry, with some thousand transport firms in and around the town. Tegelen, south of Venlo, is a center of the ceramic industry, with a Pottery Museum.