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The Loire ((:lwaʁ); (オック語:Léger); (ブルトン語:Liger)) is the longest river in France.〔(Loire River ), Encyclopædia Britannica on-line〕 With a length of , it drains an area of , or more than a fifth of France's land area, and is the 171st longest river in the world. It rises in the highlands of the southeastern quarter of the Massif Central in the Cévennes range (in the department of Ardèche) at near Mont Gerbier de Jonc; it flows north for over through Nevers to Orléans, then west through Tours and Nantes until it reaches the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic Ocean) at St Nazaire. Its main tributaries include the Nièvre, Maine and the Erdre rivers on its right bank, and the Allier, Cher, Indre, Vienne, and the Sèvre Nantaise rivers to the left bank. The Loire gives its name to six departments: Loire, Haute-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire, and Saône-et-Loire. The central part of the Loire Valley, located in the ''Centre'' region, was added to the World Heritage Sites list of UNESCO on December 2, 2000. Vineyards and chateaux are found along the banks of the river throughout this area. The human history of the Loire River valley begins with the Middle Palaeolithic period of 9040 kya (thousand years ago), followed by modern humans (about 30 kya), succeeded by the Neolithic period (6,000 to 4,500 BC), all of the recent Stone Age in Europe. Then came the Gauls, the historical tribes in the Loire during the Iron Age period 1500 to 500 BC; they used the Loire as a major riverine trading route by 600 BC, establishing trade with the Greeks on the Mediterranean coast. Gallic rule ended in the valley in 56 BC when Julius Caesar conquered the adjacent provinces for Rome. Christianity was introduced into this valley from the 3rd century AD, as missionaries (many later recognized as saints), converted the pagans. In this period, settlers established vineyards and began producing wines. The Loire Valley has been called the "Garden of France" and is studded with over a thousand chateaux, each with distinct architectural embellishments covering a wide range of variations,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Welcome to the Loire Valley )〕 from the early medieval to the late Renaissance periods.〔 They were originally created as feudal strongholds, over centuries past, in the strategic divide between southern and northern France; now many are privately owned.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Loire Valley )〕 ==Etymology== The name "Loire" comes from Latin ''Liger'', which is itself a transcription of the native Gaulish (Celtic) name of the river. The Gaulish name comes from the Gaulish word ''liga'', which means "silt, sediment, deposit, alluvium", a word that gave French ''lie'', as in ''sur lie'', which in turn gave English ''lees''. ''Liga'' comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *''legh-'', meaning "to lie, lay", which gave many words in English, such as to lie, to lay, ledge, law, etc. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Loire」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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