Leie

Location of the Lys

Course of the river in France

Template: Infobox River / Obsolete

The Leie (Latin Legia, double Lys ) is a river that runs in France and Belgium. It rises in the municipality of Lisbourg ( Flemish: Liegesboort ), in the French department of Pas -de- Calais, drained generally in a northeasterly direction and ends after a total of 202 kilometers in the city of Ghent, in the Belgian province of East Flanders, as a left tributary of the Scheldt.

Course

Of the total length of the Lys flowing 109 kilometers through Belgian territory, over a length of approximately 24 kilometers of the river forms the border between Belgium and France.

The course can be divided into the following sections:

• Upper reaches of the Lys:

Here the Leie runs as a relatively small river through the towns and Lisbourg Therouanne and finally reaches Aire -sur -la- Lys, where it meets the Großschifffahrtsweg Dunkirk -Scheldt, which is here formed by the channels Canal d' Aire and Canal de Neuffossé.

• Channeling the Lys in France:

They crossed the Großschifffahrtsweg and is also expanded itself from here on a smaller scale for shipping. It runs through the Nord, the places Merville and Armentieres touches (15 km north-west of Lille) and reaches Houplines the border with Belgium.

• Leie river as a border between France and Belgium:

On the left bank is now Belgian territory, French on the right bank. In Deûlémont the channeled Deûle from the right opens a. Major places on the French side are Comines and Halluin, on the Belgian side Comines Comines - and Wervik.

• Leie in Belgium:

The Leie runs first in the province of West Flanders over Kortrijk, where there are over the Bossuit -Kortrijk- channel navigable cross connection to the Scheldt, on to Deinze. Here the commercial shipping passed through the Schipdonk channel, which continues to the Gent- Oostende canal. The Leie runs itself in distinctive meanders through the city center of Ghent, where it finally flows into the Scheldt.

Economic Importance

The lime and iron-poor water of the Leie was a long time for sheet processing of meaning. From the flat working also the nickname of the river originated as the Golden River. 1943, the flax industry was completely prohibited in Leiegebiet because of environmental pollution. Today, the economic significance is given mainly by the transport of goods by vessels on the river.

History

The river gave its name to several battles of the First and Second World Wars

• Leieschlacht (1918 ), but mostly Fourth Battle of Ypres
• Leieschlacht (1940 ) in the context of the western campaign ( May-June 1940)

Attractions

The area of the Lys between Deinze and Ghent is known for its beautiful location and has inspired many painters of Latemse Scholes.