Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Statistics State: North Rhine-Westphalia Adm. Region: Cologne Capital: Bergheim Area: 704.5 km² Inhabitants: 455,487 (2001) pop. density: 647 inh./km² Car identification: BM Homepage: http://www.erftkreis.de Map The Rhein-Erft-Kreis is a district in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Neuss, district-free Cologne, Rhein-Sieg, Euskirchen, Düren. Table of contents 1 History 2 Geography 3 Coat of arms 4 Towns and municipalities 5 External links History The district in its current borders was created in 1975, when the previous districts Bergheim and Cologne were merged. Becoming effective on November 1, 2003 the district was renamed from Erftkreis to Rhein-Erft-Kreis. Geography The main river in the district is the Erft, which also gave it the name. The Erft flows through the foothills of the Eifel, on the left side of the Rhine river. Coat of arms The coat of arms shows the lion of Jülich in the left half, as most of the area belonged to the dukes of Jülich. The right side shows the Cologne cross, which stands for the former Cologne district. On top the Erft river is depicted; the Prussian Rhineland province had the same symbol in its coat of arms. Towns and municipalities Bedburg Bergheim Brühl Erftstadt Frechen Hürth Kerpen Pulheim Municipalities Elsdorf External links Official website (German) This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.