Destelbergen is a municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 located in the Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 province of East Flanders

East Flanders

East Flanders is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Netherlands and in Belgium on the provinces of Antwerp, Flemish Brabant , of Hainaut and of West Flanders...

. The municipality comprises the towns of Destelbergen proper and Heusden

Heusden, Belgium

Heusden was a municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders. In 1977 it merged with the municipality of Destelbergen, of which it is now part....

 and was created on January 1, 1977 by the fusion of these two municipalities. Its western border touches the municipality of Ghent

Ghent

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...

 and Melle

Melle, Belgium

Melle is a municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the villages of Gontrode and Melle proper. On January 1, 2006 Melle had a total population of 10,585...

 and is formed by an ancient silted up branch of the river Scheldt

Scheldt

The Scheldt is a 350 km long river in northern France, western Belgium and the southwestern part of the Netherlands...

.

Curiosities worth seeing are the many residential castles, a Gaulish farmhouse, and the Damvallei nature reserve.

On January 1, 2006 Destelbergen had a total population of 17,172. The total area is 26.56 km² which gives a population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

of 646 inhabitants per km².