Maastricht is a city and a municipality in the Dutch province of Limburg, of which it is the capital. The city is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, near the Belgian and German borders. Celts lived here at least 500 years before the Romans came, at a spot where the river Meuse was shallow and therefore easy to cross. The Romans later built a bridge and a large road to connect the capitals of the Nervians and Tungri, Bavay and Tongeren, with the capital of the Ubians, Cologne.