Loire

The Loire (; Occitan: Léger; Breton: Liger) is the longest river in France. With a length of 1,012 kilometres (629 mi), it drains an area of 117,054 km2 (45,195 sq mi), which represents more than a fifth of France's land area. It is the 170th longest river in the world. It rises in the Cévennes in the département of Ardèche at 1,350 m (4,430 ft) near Mont Gerbier de Jonc, and flows for over 1,000 km (620 mi) north through Nevers to Orléans, then west through Tours and Nantes until it reaches the Bay of Biscay at St Nazaire. Its main tributaries include the Maine, Nièvre and the Erdre rivers on its right bank, and the Allier, Cher, Indre, Vienne, and the Sèvre Nantaise rivers from the left bank. The Loire gives its name to six départements: Loire, Haute-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire, and Saône-et-Loire. The central part of the Loire Valley was added to the World Heritage Sites list of UNESCO on December 2, 2000. The banks are characterized by vineyards and chateaux in the Loire Valley.

Historicity of the Loire River valley begins with the earliest Middle Palaeolithic period 40–90 ka (thousand years ago), followed by the modern humans (30 ka), succeeded by the Neolithic period (6,000 to 4,500 BC) of the Stone Age and the Gauls, the inhabitants in the Loire during the Iron Age, in the period between 1500 and 500 BC. Gauls made it a major naval trading route by 600 BC, establishing trade with the Greeks on the Mediterranean coast. Gallic rule ended in the valley in 56 BC with Julius Caesar winning over this territory. Christianity made entry into this valley from 3rd century AD with many saints converting the pagans. It was the time when the wineries also came to be established in the valley.

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, 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.