The Leidse Rijn (Dutch for "

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

's Rhine") is a canal in the province of

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

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 ...

. It was dug since the Middle Ages when the meandering old Rhine course silted up. The Leidse Rijn has a length of 13 km. Towns along the Leidse Rijn are

De Meern De Meern () is an urbanized village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is a part of the municipality of Utrecht, and is located at 6 km west of the inner city of this town. Before 2001 the villages De Meern, Vleuten and Haarzuilens formed a ...

and

Harmelen Harmelen is a town in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is a part of the municipality of Woerden, and lies about 6 km east of Woerden. In 2001, the town of Harmelen had 6557 inhabitants. The built-up area of the town was 1.11 km², and c ...

. While still in Utrecht city the Leidse Rijn crosses the Merwede Canal and the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal. It is the continuation of the

Kromme Rijn The Kromme Rijn () ("Crooked Rhine", for its many bends) is a river in the central Netherlands. In Roman times, this northernmost branch of the Rhine delta was the main distributary of this major European river. Along its banks the Romans buil ...

(Crooked Rhine) through the

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

system of Utrecht. The canal ends in Harmelen. There it connects to the Oude Rijn, which eventually flows 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 ...

Katwijk aan Zee Katwijk aan Zee (literally, ''Katwijk-upon-Sea'') is a seaside resort located on the North Sea at the mouth of the Oude Rijn. It is situated in the municipality of Katwijk and the province of South Holland. History The Origin till the Gol ...

. The canal gives its name to the Utrecht neighborhood of

Leidsche Rijn Leidsche Rijn (, Utrecht dialect: ) is a neighbourhood in the west of Utrecht in the central Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = ...

History

Since the beginning of our era, the old course of the Rhine between Utrecht and Harmelen became increasingly more difficult to navigate. The building of a dam in the Kromme Rijn in 1122 led to a silting up of the old Rhine below Utrecht, especially as it meandered through very flat terrain. Already in the early Middle Ages (ca. 700) a canal from Utrecht to

Vleuten Vleuten is a former village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. Today, it is a neighbourhood of the city of Utrecht, and lies about 6 km west from the city centre. Vleuten has a railway station on the line between Utrecht and Woerden. In 2001, ...

was dug. When the part Vleuten-Harmelen ultimately became too narrow and winding as well, in 1381 the Oude Rijn (Old Rhine) canal (Harmelen-Utrecht) was dug. Under the expansion plans of the Utrecht city mayor Hendrick Moreelse in 1662-1665 a new shortcut was dug, the Leidse Rijn, connecting to where the Oude Rijn canal made a curve to the northeast. At the place where the new canal connected to the Oude Rijn the nobleman Everard Meyster built an estate called

Oog in Al Oog in Al (, Utrecht dialect: ) is a residential area in the west of the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands. The Amsterdam–Rhine Canal, the Merwede Canal and the Leidse Rijn canal form the area's limits, rendering it a man-made island in the s ...

. Eventually the name Leidse Rijn came to be used for the whole section Utrecht-Harmelen. 250px, none, Satellite close-up of the Utrecht region showing the Leidse Rijn-Oude Rijn (d).

References

{{Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta Canals in the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta