Ruhr Valley
- proper noun
:
valle del Ruhr
- Many factories are located in the Ruhr Valley, where coal mining has shaped the economy.
Examples
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Historically, the Ruhr Valley played a crucial role in Europe's industrial development.
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"The site he chose in Bochum in the Ruhr Valley is on the main artery of the town, with streetcar and bus traffic."
Academic text (1992) -
And when she failed to make the payments, the French invaded, seizing the richest and most productive industrial area of Germany, the Ruhr Valley.
Blog text (13) -
He contrasts the awful Bochum tower in the Ruhr Valley with George Segal's sculpture of Youngstown steel workers.
Academic text (1992) -
Members of the CDU, Serra tells the interviewer, "have plastered 100,000 posters in the Ruhr Valley denouncing the work."
Academic text (1992) -
The Ruhr Valley is known for its significant contributions to Germany's heavy industry.
Synonyms
1
7.4
A large industrial area in northwestern Germany known for coal and steel
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a compositional place-name: combining the proper name 'Ruhr' (the river/region) with 'valley' (a low area) yields the straightforward meaning 'the valley or region around the Ruhr River', which a B1 learner who knows both constituents can derive. The specific industrial and historical connotations are encyclopedic details not directly inferable from the words, but the core locational meaning is transparent and follows common cross-linguistic place‑naming patterns.
Etymology
The name Ruhr Valley comes from the valley of the river Ruhr, where many coal mines and factories stood in the 1800s and 1900s. Because the river's valley had so much mining and big factories, Ruhr Valley now means a region known for 'heavy industry' and coal production.