Alma

Alma is the technocrats' name for the tri-national metropolitan area of Aachen,¹ Deutschland (Germany); Liège², Belgique (België or Belgium); and Maastricht,³ Nederland (the Netherlands). The metropolitan population is 2.1 million but no city has a million residents. Aachen is located at hot springs in hilly country; the other two on the Meuse (Maas) River, with Liège at the confluence of the Ourthe. Sights include a church, now a cathedral (Aachener Dom) that Charlemagne⁴ built when Aachen was his imperial capital, and a set of man-made caves near Maastricht where visitors can see graffiti of prior famous visitors. The tallest building is Aachen is the Jakobs (Jacob's) Church at 87 meters, dating from 1890. Of equal height in Liège is the Tour Atlas, a modern residential skyscraper.⁵ Also notable in Liège is the train station of Liège-Guillemins with modern flares and curves. Also within the metropolitan area is Tongeren (Tongres), Belgique, home of a belfry and a béguinage, both honored by Unesco.

Historical maps

External references

photo of Aachen Cathedral

Footnotes

1. French: Aix-la-Chapelle; Dutch: Aken. According to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aachen (accessed 12/20/2007), it is also called Oche. Formerly it was Aquis-Granum.
2. German Luttich, Dutch Luik. Formerly Luick in English and Leodium in Latin.
3. Formerly Mosae Trajectum (Mosa-crossing). Mestreech in the local Low Franconian dialect.
4. Charles in modern French. Karl or Karol in Frankish. The cathedral has World Heritage Site status.
5. Information about building heights and construction dates is from emporis.com, accessed 1/15/2011.