Westphalia (
German: Westfalen ) is a region in
Germany, centred on the cities of
Bielefeld,
Bochum,
Dortmund,
Gelsenkirchen,
Münster, and
Osnabrück and included in the states of
North Rhine-Westphalia and
Lower Saxony.The name "West-phalia" probably means "West-Plain". The second word, "Falen", is related to the Germanic words "Field", "Flat", and "Floor" (all of which are related to the Latin "planus" through a common
Proto-Indo-European root, *pele, meaning "flat, (to) spread").Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers
Rhine and
Weser, located north of the
Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia" was applied to several different entities in history. For this reason specifications of area and population are greatly differing. They range between 16,000 and 22,000 km² in land area, and between 4.3 million and 8 million inhabitants. There is however consent that both Münster and Osnabrück as well as Bielefeld and Dortmund are part of Westphalia.
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