Utrecht
  • Utrecht is located in the centre of the country and is the smallest of the twelve provinces in terms of area.
  • Utrecht borders the Eemmeer in the north, the province of Gelderland in the east, the river Rhine in the south, the province of South Holland in the west and the province of North Holland in the northwest.
  • Main cities in this province are, apart from its capital which is also called Utrecht, Amersfoort, Houten, Nieuwegein, Veenendaal and Zeist.
  • In the east of Utrecht lies the Utrecht Hill Ridge (Dutch: Utrechtse Heuvelrug), a chain of hills left as lateral moraine by tongues of glacial ice after the Saline glaciation that preceded the last ice age.
  • Because of the scarcity of nutrients in the fast-draining sandy soil, the greatest part of a landscape that was formerly heath has been planted with pine plantations.
  • The south of the province is a river landscape. The west consists mostly of meadows.