page_title: Aa (river, France)
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Aa (river, France) / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: The Aa river in relation to the other rivers in Flanders before the connecting canals were built
context_page_description: The Aa is an 93-kilometre long river in northern France. Its source is near the village of Bourthes. The name Aa is Old Dutch. It means water, and can be traced back to its original Indo-European form as such.
  The Aa flows through the following departments and towns:
  Pas-de-Calais: Saint-Omer.
  Nord: Gravelines.
  The Aa flows into the North Sea near Gravelines, very close to the north-eastern limit of the English Channel.
context_section_description: The river's geography can be divided into two parts. First, from its source, in the Artois Hills, to Saint-Omer, it is a small chalk stream, a small version of the Somme, as shown by the map of the rivers draining the Artois plateau. This section is 56 km (35 mi) long. Second, from Saint-Omer seawards, approximately 29 kilometres (18 mi), it is a navigable waterway connecting with the Canal de Calais leading to Calais and the Canal de Bourbourg leading to Dunkirk, as shown by the map of the navigable waterways. The section of the river from Saint-Omer down to the junction with the main Dunkirk-Scheldt waterway is currently disused, as is the Canal de Neuffossé heading upstream to the same main route at Arques.
caption: Location of the River Aa in relation to the other rivers of Flanders, before the connecting canals were built
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