The Demer is an long river in eastern Belgium, right tributary of the Dijle. It flows through the Belgian provinces Limburg and

Flemish Brabant Flemish Brabant ( nl, Vlaams-Brabant ; french: Brabant flamand ) is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Hain ...

. Its source is near

Tongeren Tongeren (; french: Tongres ; german: Tongern ; li, Tóngere ) is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg, in the southeastern corner of the Flemish region of Belgium. Tongeren is the oldest town in Belgium, as the ...

. It flows into the river Dijle in Werchter, Rotselaar municipality. The most important towns along the Demer are (starting from the source)

Bilzen Bilzen () is a city and a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. In 2021, Bilzen had a total population of 32,536. The total area is 75.90 km² which gives a population density of 426 inhabitants per km². Bilzen co ...

Hasselt Hasselt (, , ; la, Hasseletum, Hasselatum) is a Belgian city and municipality, and capital and largest city of the province of Limburg in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is known for its former branding as "the city of taste", as well as i ...

Diest Diest () is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. Situated in the northeast of the Hageland region, Diest neighbours the provinces of Antwerp to its North, and Limburg to the East and is situated around ...

and

Aarschot Aarschot () is a city and municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, Belgium. The municipality comprises the city of Aarschot proper and the towns of Gelrode, Langdorp and Rillaar. On January 1, 2019, Aarschot had a total pop ...

. Tributaries of the Demer are the rivers Herk,

Gete The Gete (; french: Gette) is a river in Belgium which flows south to north. It is a left tributary of the Demer. The Gete is formed by the confluence of the rivers ''Grote Gete'' ("Large Gete") and ''Kleine Gete'' ("Small Gete") near Budingen. ...

and Velp (all three in Halen). The name "Demer" comes from the

Celtic language The Celtic languages (usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward ...

words "tam" (dark coloured) and "ara" (water) giving rise to a name meaning "dark coloured river".

References

Rivers of Belgium Rivers of Limburg (Belgium) Rivers of Flemish Brabant Tongeren {{Belgium-river-stub