Rotterdam is a port city in the west of the Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. With 588,490 inhabitants, it is the second largest city in the Netherlands in terms of population, after Amsterdam. The entire municipality of Rotterdam has 656,050 inhabitants, and the even larger metropolitan region of Rotterdam The Hague has more than 2.4 million inhabitants. Rotterdam owes its name to a dam in the Rotte River. The city is located on the Nieuwe Maas, one of the rivers in the delta formed by the Rhine and the Meuse. The port of Rotterdam was for a long time the largest in the world and is still the largest and most important in Europe. The port area extends over a length of 40 kilometers and is an important logistics and economic center. After the historic city center was largely destroyed by a German war bombing in 1940, Rotterdam has become a cradle for innovative architecture, including the Erasmus Bridge, the Cube Houses and a large number of skyscrapers.(wikipedia)