The Drechtsteden (; Dutch for "Drecht cities") are a number of towns and cities bordering each other in the delta area of the rivers

Oude Maas The Oude Maas (; en, Old Meuse) is a distributary of the river Rhine, and a former distributary of the river Maas, in the Dutch province of South Holland. It begins at the city of Dordrecht where the Beneden Merwede river splits into the Noo ...

Noord Noord () is a town and region in Aruba (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands). This town is known for its low rise and high rise hotels, restaurants, beaches, malls, the California Lighthouse, and other places of attraction. Places of interes ...

, and Beneden-Merwede in the province of

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 ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. These cooperate in the ''Gemeenschappelijke Regeling Drechtsteden'' ("joint arrangement Drechtsteden"), which performs common tasks for the municipalities in the field of economy, development, culture, and social assistance.Drechtsteden
/ref> Collectively, a little more than 250,000 people call one of the towns and cities of Drechtsteden home. The associated towns and cities are: *

Alblasserdam Alblasserdam () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It covers an area of , of which is water, and has a population of as of . Alblasserdam is officially a part of the Drechtsteden region. A po ...

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands. It is located on the island of IJsselmonde, and borders with Zwijndrecht, Ridderkerk, and the Noord River (with Alblasserdam and Papendrecht on the other side). The j ...

Papendrecht Papendrecht () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland, at the crossing of the River Beneden Merwede and the Noord River. The municipality had a population of in and covers an area of of which is ...

Sliedrecht Sliedrecht () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is covered by water. Sliedrecht is known for the many large dredging companies (including Bosk ...

Hardinxveld-Giessendam Hardinxveld-Giessendam () is a municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It is located about 10 km east of Dordrecht, on the river Beneden-Merwede. The municipality had a population of in and covers an ar ...

* Zwijndrecht The name "Drechtsteden" was chosen because the name of several of the associated cities and towns ends in the

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...

''-drecht'' (meaning: place where ships are pulled or carried across the landNederlands etymologisch woordenboek, J. de Vries, Leiden, 1997, 4th Ed., , p. 133). It is also an informal name for the area.

References

External links

{{Wikivoyage, Alblasserwaard-Drechtsteden Regions of South Holland Regions of the Netherlands