The Loire is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. The Loire rises in the south-eastern quarter of the French Massif Central in the Cévennes mountains at an altitude of 1,350 m above sea level.The river is 1,006 km long and drains 117,054 km², more than one fifth of the area of France.
For centuries, local people have used wooden dykes and dredging to keep the river navigable, a key channel for transport.
River traffic gradually grew and in the Middle Ages a system of tolls was introduced. Some of these toll bridges, which are over 800 years old, still survive today.
In the prehistoric period, the Loire Valley was already inhabited in the Middle Palaeolithic period between 40 and 90 BC. Neanderthal man used stone tools to make boats from tree trunks and navigated the river. Modern man settled the Loire Valley around 30 BC. Around 5000 to 4000 BC , he began clearing the forests along the river’s edges, cultivating the land and raising cattle, and building megaliths to worship the dead, especially from 3500 BC. Between 1500 and 500 BC the Gauls came to the valley and the Carnutes settled at Cenabum in present-day Orléans and built a bridge across the river. By 600 BC, the Loire had already become a very important trade route between the Celts and the Greeks. As a key transport route, it served as one of the great „highways“ of France for more than 2000 years.
The Loire River
