Hainaut, historically also known as Heynault in English, is the westernmost province of Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium.
To its south lies the French department of Nord, while within Belgium it borders (clockwise from the north) on the Flemish provinces of West Flanders, East Flanders, Flemish Brabant and the Walloon provinces of Walloon Brabant and Namur.
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A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to manage their safety risks and reduce their environmental impact.
The word quarry can also include the underground quarrying for stone, such as Bath stone.
Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of natural dimension or building stone varieties, including:
It is unrelated to human-made blue brick.
Charleroi (UK: /ˈʃɑːrlə.rwʌ/, US: /-rɔɪ, -rwɑː/, French: [ʃaʁləʁwa] ; Walloon: Tchålerwè [tʃɑːlɛʀwɛ]) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not far from the border with France. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of 1,462 square kilometres (564 sq mi) with a total population of 522,522 by 1 January 2008, ranking it as the 5th most populous in Belgium after Brussels, Antwerp, Liège, and Ghent. The inhabitants are called Carolorégiens or simply Carolos.
The County of Hainaut (/eɪˈnoʊ/ ay-NOH; French: Comté de Hainaut; Dutch: Graafschap Henegouwen; Latin: comitatus hanoniensis), sometimes spelled Hainault, was a territorial lordship within the medieval Holy Roman Empire that straddled the present-day border of Belgium and France. Its most important towns included Mons (Dutch: Bergen), now in Belgium, and Valenciennes, now in France.
The core of the county, named after the river Haine, stretched southeast to include the Avesnois region and southwest to the Selle (Scheldt tributary). In the Middle Ages, its Counts also gained control of part of the original pagus of Brabant to its north and the pagus of Oosterbant to the east, but they did not form part of the old pagus of Hainaut. In modern terms, the original core of Hainaut consisted of the central part of the Belgian province of Hainaut, and the eastern part of the French département of Nord (the arrondissements of Avesnes-sur-Helpe and Valenciennes).
The Oise (/wɑːz/ WAHZ; French: [waz] ; Picard: Oése) is a river of Belgium and France, flowing for 341 km (212 mi) from its source in the Belgian province of Hainaut, south of Chimay. It crosses the border with France after about 20 km (12 mi), and flows into the Seine at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a north-western suburb of Paris. Its main tributary is the Aisne. It gave its name to the French departments of Oise and Val-d'Oise.
East Flanders (Dutch: Oost-Vlaanderen [ˌoːst ˈflaːndərə(n)] ; French: Flandre-Orientale [flɑ̃dʁ ɔʁjɑ̃tal] ; German: Ostflandern [ˈɔstˌflandɐn] ; West Flemish: Ôost-Vloandern) is a province of Belgium. It borders (clockwise from the North) the Dutch province of Zeeland and the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Flemish Brabant, Hainaut and West Flanders. It has an area of 3,007 km (1,161 sq mi), divided into six administrative districts containing 60 municipalities, and a population of over 1.57 million as of January 2024. The capital is Ghent, home to the Ghent University and the Port of Ghent.
West Flanders is the westernmost province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian province, facing the North Sea to the northwest. It has land borders with the Dutch province of Zeeland to the northeast, the Flemish province of East Flanders to the east, the Walloon province of Hainaut in the south and the French department of Nord to the west. Its capital is Bruges (Brugge). Other important cities are Kortrijk in the south and Ostend (Oostende) on the coast, Roeselare and Ypres (Ieper). The province has an area of 3,197 km (1,234 sq mi) which is divided into eight administrative districts (arrondissementen) containing 64 municipalities.As of January 2024, West Flanders has a population of over 1.22 million.
The North Sea coast of Belgium, an important tourism destination, lies in West Flanders. A tram line runs the length of the coast, from De Panne on the French border to Knokke-Heist on the Dutch border. West Flanders has two seaports, the Port of Zeebrugge and the Port of Ostend.
The Condroz (French pronunciation: [kɔ̃dʁo]) is a natural region in Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium, located between the Ardennes and the Meuse. Its unofficial capital is Ciney. The region preserves the name of the Condrusi, a Germanic tribe which inhabited the area during and before the Roman era.
Compared to other parts of Belgium, the Condroz is a sparsely populated, agricultural area. It consists of low hills of an average altitude of about 200 to 300 meters (660 to 980 ft). It is mainly situated in the provinces of Liège and Namur and also in smaller parts of the Belgian provinces of Hainaut and Luxembourg. It is bordered in the north by the Meuse river, in the east by the Ardennes, in the south by the Famenne region.