- Sambre
Infobox River | river_name = Sambre
caption = The Sambre in the centre of Namur.
origin =Picardie
mouth = Meuse
coord|50|27|43|N|4|52|15|E|name=Meuse-Sambre|display=inline,title
basin_countries =Belgium ,France
length = 193 km
elevation = 199 m
discharge =
watershed = 2,740 km²The Sambre is ariver in northernFrance and southernBelgium , left tributary of theMeuse River . The ancient Romans called the river "Sabis".Course
The source of the Sambre is near
Le Nouvion-en-Thiérache , in theAisne department. It passes through the Franco-Belgian coal basin, formerly an important industrial district. Its Belgian portion was at the western end of thesillon industriel , which wasWallonia 's industrial backbone.It is canalized along much of its length and flows into theMeuse River at Namur, Belgium. The Sambre is connected with theOise River by theSambre-Oise Canal .The Sambre flows through the following
departments of France ,provinces of Belgium and towns:*
Aisne (F):Barzy-en-Thiérache
*Nord (F):Landrecies ,Aulnoye-Aymeries ,Hautmont ,Maubeuge
*Hainaut (B):Thuin ,Montigny-le-Tilleul ,Charleroi
*Namur:Floreffe , NamurEvents
*The mother of
Rene Magritte , a famoussurrealism painter killed herself by drowning in this river.Battles
The nineteenth-century theory that the Sambre was the location of
Julius Caesar 's battle against aBelgic confederation (57 BC), has been discarded long time ago, [Pierre Turquin ("La Bataille de la Selle (du Sabis) en l' An 57 avant J.-C." in Les Études Classiques 23/2 (1955), 113-156) has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the battle was fought at theRiver Selle , west of modernSaulzoir .] but is still repeated.Heavy fighting occurred along the river during
World War I , especially at the siege of Namur in 1914 (Battle of Charleroi ) and in the last month of the war (Battle of the Sambre (1918) ).References
*http://www.geoportail.fr
* [http://sandre.eaufrance.fr/app/chainage/courdo/htm/D0--022-.php?cg=D0--022- The Sambre at the Sandre database]
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