BELGIUM

BELGIUM / BELGIQUE - BELGIË.

International Water Exhibition, Liège (1939).
Albert Canal in Eigenbilzen, and King Albert I portrait.
Last stamp in a set of 4, issued on 31.10.1938.
Face value: 1.75 Belgian franc.
Printing: Photogravure.
Print: 2,200,000 copies.
Size: 34 x 25 mm.

Catalogs
- AFA No. 481.
- Michel No. 485.
- Scott No. 321.
- StampWorld No. 482.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 827.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 487.

The Albert Canal (Dutch: Albertkanaal; French: Canal Albert) is a navigable canal located in the northeast of Belgium, which was named after King Albert I of Belgium. It connects Antwerp with Liège and also the Meuse river with the Scheldt river, and it also connects with the Dessel-Turnhout-Schoten canal. Its total length is 129.5 km (80.5 mi). It was built between 1930 and 1939 and was used for the first time in 1940 but, due to WWII and German occupation, heavy use did not begin until 1946. Between Antwerp and Liège, there is an elevation difference of 56 m (184 ft), and it took six sets of canal locks to overcome this difference. Five canal locks each have a 10 m (33 ft) lift, and are located at Genk, Diepenbeek, Hasselt, Kwaadmechelen and Olen; the sixth is the Wijnegem Lock, which has an elevation of 5.45 m (17.9 ft). The stamp shows the canal in Eigenbilzen, a town that since 1977 has been merged with Bilzen.