   loos-en-gohelle is a commune in the pas-de-calais department in the nord-pas-de-calais region of france. ==geography== a former coal mining town, three miles northwest of the centre of lens, at the junction of the d943 and the a21 autoroute. its nearest neighbours are lens to the south, grenay to the west, hulluch to the northeast and bÃ©nifontaine to the east. the two largest (184m & 182m) spoil heaps in europe are found here. thumb|left|slag heaps of pits 11 and 19 at loos-en-gohelle ==history== the place was first documented in 1071, as "lohes". the name has changed considerably over the years: lothae, lo, lohes, loes, loez and loos. it was not until 1791 that the name of "loos" was officially sanctioned. according to some, the name comes from the germanic "lÃ´h" and dutch "loo" which mean "wood", but there is no archaeological evidence of what could have been a forest. according to others, the name derives from the germanic "laupo" which means marshy meadows, which, given the topography of the town, tends to support this theory. in 1937, after much confusion with loos-lez-lille (today loos), it was decided to add the regionâs name (gohelle) to that of the commune. the oldest documents that specify the existence of loos date from the eleventh century, at the time of construction of the abbey of anchin. but with the foundation of a church dedicated to saint vaast, it suggests that the village existed long before (st. vaast lived in the 6th century). by the middle ages, loos-en-gohelle was a large village whose inhabitants lived mainly by farming: in 1569, 350 inhabitants, in 1759, 600 people ; in 1824, 700 inhabitants and in 1850 around 800 people. it was around 1850 that the town started to become prosperous; farmers could fertilize previously uncultivated land, thanks to technology provided by guis
Communes_of_Pas-de-Calais