Saturday, December 12, 2015

Canal du Centre - Belgium

Here comes another UNESCO site from Belgium, this one new in my collection. It was sent by Natália last August. 
The Four Lifts on the Canal du Centre and their Environs, La Louvière and Le Roeulx (Hainaut) were inscribed on the UNESCO WHS list in 1998.

The Canal du Centre is a canal in Belgium, which, with other canals, links the waterways of the Meuse and Scheldt rivers. It has a total length of 20.9 km. Because of the differences in height of the Canal it was necessary to built hydraulic boat lifts. 
There is a rise of some 90 metres from Mons to the summit level of 121 metres above sea level. Most of this rise is concentrated in a few kilometres - hence the artificial help. 

© Photos F. T. P. H.: C. Carpentier
The canal, the lifts and its associated structures, constitute a remarkably well-preserved and complete example of a late-19th-century industrial landscape. Of the eight hydraulic boat-lifts built at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the only ones in the world which still exist in their original working condition are these four lifts on the Canal du Centre. - inhttp://whc.unesco.org/en/list/856

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