Nieuwe Maas

Nieuwe Maas New Meuse
Nieuwe Maas in the heart of Rotterdam
Location of Nieuwe Maas in dark blue
Location
Country	Netherlands
Physical characteristics
Source	Lek / Noord
• location	Ridderkerk
Mouth	Het Scheur
• location	Vlaardingen
Length	24 km (15 mi)

The Nieuwe Maas (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌni.wə ˈmaːs]; "New Meuse") is a distributary of the Rhine River, and a former distributary of the Maas River, in the Dutch province of South Holland. It runs from the confluence of the rivers Noord and Lek, and flows west through Rotterdam. It ends west of the city where it meets the Oude Maas ("Old Meuse"), near Vlaardingen, to form Het Scheur. After a few miles, the Scheur continues as the artificial Nieuwe Waterweg. The total length of the Nieuwe Maas (excluding the Scheur) is approximately 24 kilometres (15 mi).