... situated in the west of the Netherlands. The municipality is the second
largest in the country (behind Amsterdam), with a population of 584,046 as of
January 2007. It forms the southern part of the Randstad, the sixth-largest
metropolitan area in Europe, with a population of 6.7 million.
The port of Rotterdam is the largest in Europe. From 1962 to 2004, it was the
world's busiest port; then it was superseded by Shanghai. Rotterdam is situated
on the banks of the river Nieuwe Maas ('New Meuse'), one of the channels in the
delta formed by the Rhine and Meuse rivers. The name Rotterdam derives from a
dam in the Rotte river
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