Lek (river) in the context of "Vianen"

Nieuwegein (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌniu.əˈɣɛin] ) is a municipality and city in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is bordered on the north by the city of Utrecht, the provincial capital. It is separated from Vianen to the south by the river Lek and borders on IJsselstein in the southwest and Houten in the east. Nieuwegein has 64,606 inhabitants as of 1 December 2021.

Several national sports federations are housed in Nieuwegein, including the NeVoBo (volleyball), KNZB (swimming), NBb (basketball) and KNCB (cricket).

The Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta is a river delta in the Netherlands formed by the confluence of the Rhine, the Meuse (Dutch: Maas) and the Scheldt rivers. In some cases, the Scheldt delta is considered a separate delta to the Rhine–Meuse delta. The result is a multitude of islands, branches and branch names, in which a waterway that appears to be one continuous stream may have numerous separate names for different sections, e.g. Rhine → Bijlands Kanaal → Pannerdens Kanaal → Nederrijn → Lek → Nieuwe Maas → Het Scheur → Nieuwe Waterweg. Since the Rhine contributes most of the water, the term "Rhine Delta" is commonly used, although this name is also used for the delta where the Alpine Rhine flows into Lake Constance. By some calculations, the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta covers 25,347 km (9,787 sq mi), making it the largest in Europe.

The Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta is economically extremely important, since the three rivers are major navigable waterways. The delta is the entrance from the North Sea to the German and Central European hinterland (and to a lesser extent France). Major ports in the delta are Rotterdam, Antwerp (Belgium), Vlissingen, Amsterdam (through the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal), and Ghent (through the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal). The land areas in the delta are protected from flooding by the Dutch Delta Works.

The Oude Rijn ("Old Rhine") is a branch of the Rhine delta in the Dutch provinces of Utrecht and South Holland, starting west of Utrecht, at Harmelen, and running by a mechanical pumping station into the North Sea at Katwijk. Its present-day length is 52 kilometres.

In ancient times, it was the lower part of the main River Rhine, which forked at the Betuwe into a northern branch, the Rhine, and a southern branch, the Waal. The Oude Rijn was then much wider than it is now, and tidal. During the Roman occupation, the river formed part of the northern border of the Empire. In medieval times, the River Lek became the main outlet for the Rhine, and the Oude Rijn silted up. The river was still important as a drain for the surrounding lowlands, for the clay industry, and as a transport and trade route. Ships were towed by horse and human power, using a towpath along large sections of the river, many parts of which have since been upgraded to roads or cycle paths.

The Hollandse or Hollandsche IJssel (pronounced [ˌɦɔlɑntsə ˈʔɛisəl]; "Holland IJssel", as opposed to the 'regular' or Gelderland IJssel) is a branch of the Rhine delta that flows westward from Nieuwegein on river Lek through IJsselstein, Gouda and Capelle aan den IJssel to Krimpen aan den IJssel, where it ends in the Nieuwe Maas. Another branch called Enge IJssel ("Narrow IJssel") flows southwest from Nieuwegein. The name IJssel is thought to derive from the Germanic i sala, meaning "dark water". Originally, the Hollandse IJssel forked off from river Lek at Nieuwegein, but the connection was cut off with the Hollandse IJssel nowadays only draining the surrounding pastures.

If the North Sea floods, the Hollandse IJssel allows water through the Rotterdam Waterway to flood low-lying land east of Rotterdam. The Delta Works included a steel barrier that can be lowered within minutes to block the waterway. The sea protection constructions were built at the mouth of the Hollandse IJssel in 1957.

The Nederrijn (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈneːdəˌrɛin]; "Lower Rhine"; distinct from the Lower Rhine or Niederrhein further upstream) is the Dutch part of the Rhine from the confluence at the town of Angeren of the cut-off Rhine bend of Oude Rijn (Gelderland) and the Pannerdens Kanaal (which was dug to form the new connection between the Waal and Nederrijn branches). The city of Arnhem lies on the right (north) bank of the Nederrijn, just past the point where the IJssel branches off. The Nederrijn flows on to the city of Wijk bij Duurstede, from where it continues as the Lek. The once-important but now small Kromme Rijn branch (in Roman times part of the Limes Germanicus and border river of the Roman Empire) carries the name "Rhine" towards the city of Utrecht.

From the city of Utrecht, the Kromme Rijn forks into the Vecht to the north, and into the Oude Rijn (Utrecht and South Holland) to the west. The first part is channelised and known as the Leidse Rijn (Leiden Rhine). After the railway bridge near Harmelen (municipality Woerden) it is known as the Oude Rijn, flowing westward to the North Sea.

Dorestad (Dorestat, Duristat) was an early medieval emporium, located in the present-day province of Utrecht in the Netherlands, close to the modern-day town of Wijk bij Duurstede. It flourished during the 8th to early 9th centuries, as an important port on the northeastern shipping routes due to its proximity to the fork in the Rhine, with access to Germany via the Nederrijn (the northernmost branch of the Rhine), to the southern Netherlands, northern France, and England (via the Lek), and to the northern Netherlands, northern Germany, and Scandinavia (via the Kromme Rijn).

Batavia (/bəˈteɪviə/ bə-TAY-vee-ə), known in Dutch as Betuwe (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbeːtyu.ə] ), is a historical and geographical region in the Netherlands, composed of large fertile islands in the river delta formed by the waters of the Rhine (Dutch: Rijn) and Meuse (Dutch: Maas) rivers. During the Roman Empire, it was an important frontier region and source of imperial soldiers. Its name is possibly pre-Roman.

The name Batavia derives directly from the Roman term for the region, and is related to the name of the Batavi or Batavians who lived in the area under Roman rule, until the third century AD. Administratively, the modern version, Betuwe, is a part of the Dutch province of Gelderland, and although the rivers and provinces have changed over history it is roughly the same. Today it includes the Waal river on the south and the Lek and Nederrijn in the north (all rivers which start in the delta itself and are branches of the Rhine). Historically, the former municipality of Rijnwaarden belonged to Betuwe, now in Zevenaar, which was cut off by the building of the Pannerdens Kanaal.

52°9′8″N 5°0′23″E / 52.15222°N 5.00639°E / 52.15222; 5.00639

The Amsterdam–Rhine Canal (Dutch: Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal) is a canal in the Netherlands that was built to connect the port and capital city of Amsterdam to the main shipping artery of the Rhine. The canal is 72 km in length, over 100 meters wide and 6 meters deep. Its course follows a generally south-easterly direction as it goes through the city of Utrecht towards Wijk bij Duurstede where it intersects the Lek branch of the Rhine and then continues on to the river Waal near Tiel, with a branch, the Lek Canal, to the Lek near Nieuwegein. The canal is one of the busiest in the world. 91,495 vessels (including 5,541 recreational vessels) sailed through the canal in 2016, carrying a total of 77,172,454 tons of cargo.

Lopik (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈloːpɪk] ) is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht, close to the Lek river.