History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 26

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS
Main article: Provinces of Belgium#Provinces of the Flemish Region
The Flemish Region covers 13,522 km² (5,221 sq mi) and contains over 300
municipalities. It is divided into 5 provinces:

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Antwerp (Antwerpen)
Limburg (Limburg)
East Flanders (Oost-Vlaanderen)
Flemish Brabant (Vlaams-Brabant)
West Flanders (West-Vlaanderen)

Independently from the provinces, Flanders has its own local institutions in the
Brussels-Capital Region, being the Vlaamse GemeenschapsCommissie (VGC), and
its municipal antennae (Gemeenschapscentra, community centers for the Flemish
community in Brussels). These institutions are independent from the educational,
cultural and social institutions which depend directly on the Flemish government. They
exert, among others, all those cultural competences that outside Brussels fall under
the provinces.
GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE
Antwerpen (Antwerp), Gent (Ghent), Brugge (Bruges) and Leuven are the largest
cities of Flanders. Antwerpen has a population of more than 450,000 citizens and is
the largest city, Gent has a population of 250,000 citizens, followed by Brugge with
100,000 citizens. Leuven is the smallest city with almost 100,000 citizens. Brussel
(Brussels) is a part of Flanders as far as community matters are concerned, but does
not belong to the Flemish Region.
Flanders has two main geographical regions: the coastal Yser basin plain in the northwest and a central plain. The first consists mainly of sand dunes and clayey alluvial
soils in the polders. Polders are areas of land, close to or below sea level that have
been reclaimed from the sea, from which they are protected by dikes or, a little further
inland, by fields that have been drained with canals. With similar soils along the
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