Campine. The Campine or De Kempen is a natural region situated chiefly in north-eastern Belgium and parts of the south-eastern Netherlands which once consisted mainly of extensive moors, tracts of sandy heath, and wetlands. It encompasses a large northern and eastern portion of Antwerp province and adjacent parts of Limburg in Belgium, as well as portions of the Dutch province of North Brabant and Dutch Limburg around Weert. Today the Campine is becoming a popular touristic destination. Old farms have been transformed into bed-and-breakfast hotels, the restaurant and café business is very active, and an extensive cycle touring network has come into existence over the past few years. Part of the Campine is protected as the Hoge Kempen Nationaal Park. It is located in the east of the Belgian province of Limburg, between Genk and the Meuse valley and was opened in March 2006. Covering almost 60 square kilometres, it forms part of the Natura 2000 network. The area is mostly heathland and pine forest.In May 2011 it was placed on UNESCO's Tentative List for consideration as a World Heritage Site. The name Campine / Kempen derives from the Latin Campinia or Campina, meaning region of fields. The inhabitants of the Campine region are known as Kempenaars. The region, described as a desolate flat land often appears in the books of the prominent Flemish writer Hendrik Conscience, who spent much of his childhood there. Another author who has written many novels playing in the Campine was Georges Eekhoud. In 1837 Victor Hugo made a journey through Belgium and visited the Campine and the towns of Lier and Turnhout, and wrote about his journey. During the interbellum Felix Timmermans, Stijn Streuvels, Jozef Simons and the poet Jozef De Voght wrote about the Belgian Campine. The painters Jakob Smits and Frans Van Giel painted many Campine landscapes. The region is rich in folk tales, such as the stories about the Buckriders and those concerning the gnome king Kyrië. The Museum Kempenland in Eindhoven has a considerable and historically important art collection of painters, draughtsmen, sculptors, blacksmiths and other craftsmen from this region. Much of the architectural, agrarian and historical and cultural heritage of the Campine can be visited in the open-air museum of Bokrijk. The old way of living and the Campine dialects have been the topic of scientific research. In the Roman era the name of the region was Toxandria or Taxandria. The Campine is an area in the Belgian provinces Antwerp, Limburg and the extreme north of the province Flemish Brabant, and in the south of the Dutch province Noord-Brabant. It stretches from the east of the city of Antwerp and towards the west of Eindhoven. Farther east the Campine is in the Groote Peel, a region which is geographically related to the Campine. The south border is formed by the river Demer, and the east border by the valley of the river Meuse. The Campine plateau is part of the Campine region. The Campine Basin, which extends from Belgium into the Netherlands, is formed by the Devonian and Carboniferous sedimentary rocks on the northern flank of the Brabant Massif. In historical times, it is the reputed original territory of the Cempsii who along the Eburones, Bituriges and others Loire Celtic and Belgian tribes of the iron Age-according to the Classic Greeks writers reports-were leading a large train of mixed peoples behind them in their migrating into the Iberian peninsula at the end of the Hallstatt period, looking for more benign and akin lands mostly propitiated after a combination of factors came about in those centuries: the increased aggressive pressure from the new La Tene Culture ethnic groups from further South the Rhine in their rise and expansion across much wider areas in Europe, and as result of the climatic worsening precisely too during those centuries which altered all the animal and plant life over Northern Europe for other folks, vital for their growing and harvest seasons, that will push many irremediably into migrations too across the Rhine into the area and beyond from the North and East. The Portuguese city of Sesimbra and others in central Portugal still bear their names, legacy of their important presence once settled in the region. Since it was a region with a poor sandy soil, there are only a few old or large cities in the region. Most of those cities are located at the outer rim of the region, such as Hasselt, Diest, Aarschot, Lier, Breda, Tilburg, Eindhoven, Maaseik, and Maastricht. Turnhout is an exception. West of Turnhout clay was used for the production of barge, which is one of the reasons why the Noord-Kempens Canal was dug to Antwerp.