The Jeker (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈjeːkər]; French: Geer, French pronunciation:[ʒɛʁ]) is a river in Belgium and in the Netherlands. It is a left-bank tributary to the river Meuse. The source of the Jeker is near the village of Geer, in the Belgian province of Liège. The river is approximately 54 kilometres (34 mi) long, of which about 50 kilometres (31 mi) is in Belgium (provinces of Liège and Limburg) and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) in the Netherlands (province of Limburg), where it flows into the river Meuse at Maastricht (Netherlands).
Maastricht (/ˈmɑːstrɪxt/MAH-strikht, US also /mɑːˈstrɪxt/mah-STRIKHT, Dutch:[maːˈstrɪxt]; Limburgish: Mestreech[məˈstʀeːx]) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the Meuse (Dutch: Maas), at the point where the river is joined by the Jeker. Mount Saint Peter (Sint-Pietersberg) is largely situated within the city's municipal borders. Maastricht is adjacent to the border with Belgium and is part of the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion, an international metropolis with a population of about 3.9 million, which includes the nearby German and Belgian cities of Aachen, Liège, and Hasselt.
Maastricht developed from a Roman settlement (Trajectum ad Mosam) to a medieval river trade and religious centre. In the 16th century it became a garrison town and in the 19th century an early industrial centre. Today, the city is a thriving cultural and regional hub. It became well known through the Maastricht Treaty and as the birthplace of the euro. Maastricht has 1,677 national heritage buildings (rijksmonumenten), the second highest number in the Netherlands, after Amsterdam. The city is visited by tourists for shopping and recreation, and has a large international student population. The last stage of the Cretaceous period and the Mesozoic era, the Maastrichtian, is named after this city, at the end of which was the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which resulted in the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs.
Mount Saint Peter (French: Montagne Saint-Pierre; Dutch: Sint-Pietersberg), also referred to as Caestert Plateau, is the northern part of a plateau running north to south between the valleys of the river Geer to the west, and the Meuse to the east. The plateau runs from Maastricht in the Netherlands, through Riemst in Belgian Limburg almost to the city of Liège in Belgium, thus defining the topography of this border area between Flanders, Wallonia and the Netherlands. The name of the hill, as well as the nearby village and church of Sint Pieter and the fortress of Sint Pieter, refers to Saint Peter, one of the Twelve Apostles.
On January 1, 2006, Geer had a total population of 2,854. The total area is 23.62 km² which gives a population density of 121 inhabitants per km². Geer lies along the upper course of the river Jeker, which is called Geer in French.
The city is located on the River Geer (Dutch: Jeker), in the loessicHaspengouw region. The economy is based on the cultivation of cereals and sugar beet, and on the food industry.
