The Vaalserberg (; ) is a hill with a height of above

NAP A nap is a short period of sleep, typically taken during daytime hours as an adjunct to the usual nocturnal sleep period. Naps are most often taken as a response to Somnolence, drowsiness during waking hours or as a means to supplement before ...

and is the highest point in the European part of the Netherlands. The Vaalserberg is located in the province of Limburg, at the south-easternmost edge of the country, near the town of Vaals (after which it is named). The Vaalserberg was the highest point anywhere in the Netherlands until the Caribbean island of

Saba Saba may refer to: Places * Saba (island), an island of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea * Sabá, a municipality in the department of Colón, Honduras * Șaba or Șaba-Târg, the Romanian name for Shabo, a village in Ukraine * Saba, ...

, with its

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

, was incorporated into the country as a "special municipality" in 2010.

Three-country point

The Vaalserberg is also the location of the

tripoint A triple border, tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geography, geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or Administrative division, subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints ...

between Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and so its summit is called the ''Drielandenpunt'' ("three country point") in Dutch, ''Dreiländereck'' ("three country corner") in German and ''Trois Frontières'' ("three borders") or ''Trois Bornes'' ("three border stones") in French. On the Belgian side, the tripoint borders the region of

Wallonia Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium—along with Flemish Region, Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the c ...

, including both the regular French-speaking area and the smaller German-speaking area. The German side falls within the city limits of

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

in the state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. Between 1830 and 1919, the summit was a

quadripoint A quadripoint is a point on Earth where four distinct political territories meet. The territories can be of different types, such as national and provincial. In North America, several such places are commonly known as Four Corners (disambiguatio ...

, also bordering

Neutral Moresnet Neutral Moresnet (, , , ) was a small Belgian–Prussian condominium in western Europe that existed from 1816 to 1921 and was administered jointly by the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (Belgium after its independence in 1830) and the Kingdo ...

, which is now part of Belgium's German-speaking area. Historical borders before First World War. Vaalserberg is located at the quadripoint in the top central area of the map.
Legend: 2017-05 Vaalserberg 07

The current Belgian-German border is not the same as the former eastern border of Moresnet with

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

but is a little more to the east. Therefore, five different borders came together at this point but never more than four at one time, except possibly between 1917 and 1920, when the border situation was unclear and disputed. The border intersection has made the Vaalserberg a well-known tourist attraction in the Netherlands, with a tower on the Belgian side (; ; ), opened in 1994 to replace the previous tower, built in 1970. It offers a grand panorama of the surrounding landscape. south of the point, a railway crosses the German-Belgian border in the ''Gemmenicher Tunnel''. It is the freight-only railway between

Tongeren Tongeren (; ; ; ) is a city and former 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 only Roman administrative capital wit ...

and

Four-borders road

The road leading up to this point on the Dutch side is called the ''Viergrenzenweg'' ("four borders way"), probably because of the former territory of

. The names of the roads in Belgium (''Route des Trois Bornes'') and Germany (''Dreiländerweg'') refer to the present three bordering countries.Se
Google Maps showing street names
/ref> Along the road on the Dutch side is the ' observation tower, with a restaurant and forest trails. The present tower officially opened on 7 October 2011 and features a lift and a glass floor. The first tower at the site was built in 1905 during the reign of its namesake, Queen

Wilhelmina of the Netherlands Wilhelmina (; Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria; 31 August 1880 – 28 November 1962) was List of monarchs of the Netherlands, Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, making her the longest- ...

, and was demolished in 1945. The second tower opened on 11 August 1951 and was demolished over the winter of 2010–2011 because of its poor condition and high maintenance requirements.

Road cycling

The Vaalserberg is often used in the Amstel Gold Race and is climbed halfway through the race. The climb is named in the roadbook of the Gold Race as Drielandenpunt and crosses the border with Belgium and followed after is the Gemmenich climb to go into the Netherlands again. The Belgian climb part (or descent) is called Côte des Trois bornes or Côte des Trois Frontières and includes two hairpin bends. It starts from Gemmenich with the roadname Route des Trois Bornes.

References

{{Commons category, Vaalserberg 'Tim Travel'
''Holland's highest mountain (& the strange story of Neutral-Moresnet)
(

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

) Highest points of countries Border tripoints Belgium–Germany border crossings Belgium–Netherlands border crossings Germany–Netherlands border crossings Mountains and hills of the Ardennes (Belgium) Mountains and hills of the Eifel Mountains and hills of the Netherlands Mountains and hills of Liège Province Mountains and hills of North Rhine-Westphalia Hills of South Limburg (Netherlands) German-speaking Community of Belgium Aachen Kelmis Vaals Quadripoints and higher Neutral Moresnet

Three-country point

Four-borders road

Road cycling

See also

References