Scheldt

The Scheldt is a river that springs in northern France and flows through Hainaut and Flanders via Antwerp to the North Sea. From this large port city, the river flows westward. Originally, it divided into two branches there, the Eastern Scheldt and the Western Scheldt or Honte, with the Eastern Scheldt initially being the main branch.

The river Scheldt consists of three parts, the Upper Scheldt up to Ghent. The length of this section is approximately 185 kilometers, and no tide is noticeable here. The second part is the Sea Scheldt from Ghent to the Dutch border, and lastly, the Western Scheldt. The Sea Scheldt and the Western Scheldt together form an estuary, where the tide is indeed noticeable.

The Scheldt has long been of great commercial and strategic importance. The Romans were already interested in the Scheldt area, not so much because they found it so pleasant, as it was too cold and wet for that. Flooding was certainly a major problem in their time. The reason for their interest was the shipping connection to Britannia. On Walcheren, there was a temple where their sailors liked to invoke the help and protection of the goddess Nehalennia before they set sail via the Roompot, possibly a corruption of Romanus Portus (Port of the Romans). At first, the area was firmly in Roman hands. The border lay about 100 km to the north at the Rhine.

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