Belgium

Belgium is less than 12,000 square miles in area with a population of 10 million inhabitants, or 650 people per square mile.   Belgium is divided into three regions: Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia.

Northern Belgium or Flanders (Vlaanderen) is a flat, fertile agricultural country dotted with attractive medieval towns. Two of these, Ghent and Antwerp, have become modern industrial centres while retaining much of their earlier charm. Antwerp is also, after Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port. Bruges, often known as the Venice of the North, is smaller and less touched by modernity.

Southern, French-speaking Belgium, known as Wallonia (Wallonie), has a more picturesque landscape, including the mountains and forests of the Ardennes and embraces a small German-speaking area in and around the towns of Eupen, Malmédy and St Vith. Its major towns - Liege and Charleroi - were cradles of the Industrial Revolution, and are still important steel-making centres, though the coal-fields on which their earlier prosperity was based, have long closed down. Wallonia, like Flanders, sees its future as a centre for hi-tech modern industry.

Linking the two parts of the country are two considerable rivers, the Meuse (Maas) and the Escaut (Scheldt). Each of these rises in France, comes to maturity in Belgium and flows out into the sea in Holland. Both rivers have contributed massively to the country’s historical and economic development.
Belgium's 10 provinces are Antwerp, Limburg, East Flanders, West Flanders and Flemish Brabant (Dutch-speaking). The French-speaking provinces are Hainaut, Liège, Luxemburg, Namur and Walloon Brabant.

Major cities are Brussels, Antwerp, Mechelen, Ghent, Bruges, Ostend, Mons, Liège, Charleroi, Namur and Wavre.