Genk probably originated as a Celtic village, and was converted to Christianity in the 10th century. It remained unimportant & little until 1901, when André Dumont found a big quantity of coal in the nearby village of As. Before long fallowing, a Black Gold was as well observed within Genk. a village began to attract a big quantity of each Belgian & foreign immigrants, & quickly became one of the large cities within Limburg. Notwithstanding, within 1966 the coal mine of Zwartberg closed down, and Genk developed recently industries. A biggest one present is the Ford Motor Company factory, employing a select few 10,000 population & building a Ford Mondeo sedan and Ford Transit van. Per prevent of the 1980s, the two left over coalpit of Winterslag and Waterschei were also closed. Genk is today the industrial centre of Limburg, harbouring a people consisting of astir Sixty nationalities. In point of fact, the single third of the people is of a foreign nationality. This mix of Belgian, Mediterranean (mostly Italian) and Turkish culture makes Genk into a super multicultural society. Within 2000, Genk officially became a city.

A large holidaymaker attraction of Genk is Bokrijk, an open air museum consisting of reconstructed 19th century buildings from completely above Flanders. inside the summertime, historical Flanders comes alive in Bokrijk across many actors & activities. Likewise noteworthy come a old coalpit of Zwartberg, Waterschei & Winterslag, accompagnied by brobdingnagian nigrify mountains of soil & coal remnants that were turn up. Despite its industrial past & present Genk is nicknamed A Green City. It sports the nature and severity reserve known as "De Maten", a big unpaid front yard Kattevenia, Bokrijk, & another green areas.

Its soccer club, K.R.C. Genk, promoted from second division in 1996 and quickly became one of Belgiums top clubs. It finished number 1 in the highest soccer league in 1999 and 2002 and won the Belgian Cup in 1998 and 2000. Because of this profits, a stadion of KRC Genk has get an significant centre of each sport & non-sport activities around recent years.