Brielse Meer

The Brielse Meer ("Lake Den Briel") is a long, narrow lake between the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

s of Voorne and

Rozenburg Rozenburg () is a town and former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality had a population of 13,173 in 2004, and covers an area of 6.50 km² (of which 1.99 km² water). It was the s ...

in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

South Holland South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of October 2021 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely ...

. The lake takes its name from Den Briel, a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

on its

shore A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past a ...

. It was formerly a branch of the

Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...

known as Brielse Maas (Den Briel Meuse), which ran from the

Botlek Rhine–Meuse_delta_showing_the_Botlek_(r)..html" ;"title="image">Satellite image of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta">Rhine–Meuse delta showing the Botlek (r).">image">Satellite image of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta">Rhine–Meuse delta ...

strait near

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

. The first stretch, between Botlek and the former

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

with the

Het Scheur Het Scheur (; Dutch for "The Rip") is a branch of the Rhine-Meuse delta in South Holland, Netherlands, that flows west from the confluence of the Oude Maas and Nieuwe Maas branches past the towns of Rozenburg and Maassluis. It continues as th ...

branch, was alternatively known as (the last stretch of)

Nieuwe Maas The Nieuwe Maas (; "New Meuse") is a distributary of the Rhine River, and a former distributary of the Meuse (river), Maas River, in the Netherlands, Dutch Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland. It runs from the confluence of th ...

. When the Brielse Maas silted up in the late nineteenth century, the

Nieuwe Waterweg The Nieuwe Waterweg ("New Waterway") is a ship canal in the Netherlands from het Scheur (a branch of the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta) west of the town of Maassluis to the North Sea at Hook of Holland: the Maasmond, where the Nieuwe Waterweg conn ...

ship canal A ship canal is a canal especially intended to accommodate ships used on the oceans, seas, or lakes to which it is connected. Definition Ship canals can be distinguished from barge canals, which are intended to carry barges and other vessel ...

was constructed (1872) and Het Scheur was separated from the Brielse Maas by a

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

. As a

precursor Precursor or Precursors may refer to: *Precursor (religion), a forerunner, predecessor ** The Precursor, John the Baptist Science and technology * Precursor (bird), a hypothesized genus of fossil birds that was composed of fossilized parts of unr ...

to the

Delta Works The Delta Works ( nl, Deltawerken) is a series of construction projects in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land around the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta from the sea. Constructed between 1954 and 1997, the works con ...

sea barrier constructions, the Brielse Maas was closed off at both ends in 1950, becoming the Brielse Meer. Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta Lakes of the Netherlands Landforms of South Holland Voorne-Putten {{SouthHolland-geo-stub