Binningen, Switzerland

Binningen is a municipality of about 15,800 inhabitants in the district of Arlesheim in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland. It is nestled in a valley, on a plateau and on two hills overlooking the city of Basel, along the Birsig river. The name is first mentioned in 1004 as Binningen, and between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries it appears in forms such as Binnengin and Biningin. Bottmingen was part of Binningen until 1837, and over the course of the 19th century the village was absorbed into the Basel agglomeration. The municipality covers about 4.4 square kilometres, of which 72 percent is built up, mostly housing and buildings, with about a fifth farmland and 7 percent forest.