Rotte (river)

The Rotte is a river in the Dutch province Zuid Holland. The city of Rotterdam is named after this river, Rotterdam means dam of the Rotte, Rotterdam is founded when a dam was built in the Rotte. Original, the river was named Rotta, based on the Dutch word 'rot', this word means something like dirty, because the river was very muddy, and A because Aa means water in old European languages.
History.
In the Roman Age, the river has been connected with the Rhine. The river was cut off from the Rhine later. The area where the Rhine was connected to the Rotte changed into an area of bog. After all the bog was excavated, the area changed into a swamp, this swamp was the new source of the Rotte. In the 17th century the swamp area is empoldered, and the Rotte did not have a source anymore.
In the early medieval age, settlement was founded. But because of floods in the area, the people were not able to live in the area. Later in 1270, a 400 meter long dam was build along the river, people started to live on this dam, and that is where Rotterdam was founded. Today, this dam is the "Hoogstraat" in Rotterdam.