Inde


The Inde is a small river in Belgium and in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Geography

The Inde is a left tributary of the Rur/Roer, in eastern Belgium and in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany.
Its source is near Raeren, in Eastern Belgium. The Inde runs through Aachen-Kornelimünster, Eschweiler, and Inden. Its mouth is on the Rur near Jülich. Because of lignite opencast mining, a section of the course was diverted near Inden-Lamersdorf in 2003.
Tributaries of the Inde include the streams: Omerbach, Otterbach, Saubach, Vichtbach, and Wehebach.
railway over the Inde

History

Its name is of Celtic origin: Inda. The Inde has a counterpart, a "small Inde", in France: the Andelle, which is a long river in the French département Seine-Maritime and whose original name was Indella.

The suffix -ella is an example for Celtic river names comparing for instance Mosella. For the name "Inde", the Indoeuropean stem *wed is supposed, like in words like Italian "onda" and French "onde".
The Inde acquired historical importance when Emperor Louis the Pious founded the Kornelimünster Abbey monastery along one of its old courses in 815.