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Kinderdijk: a unique location
Nowhere around the world you can find a place like Kinderdijk.
Kinderdijk is the only place in the world where you can find so many windmills concentrated
on such a short area. This is one of the reason why Kinderdijk has been added tot the UNESCO
world heritage list.
The Kinderdijk milling complex consists of 8 stone brick windmills of the waterboard
Nederwaard which were built in 1738, 8 thatched windmills of the waterboard Overwaard
built in 1740, 2 stone windmills of the polder Nieuw-Lekkerland built in 1760
and 1 windmill of the polder Blokweer which was built in 1521 and burned down in 1997.
Since that day the windmill has been restaured and has been operational since the
spring of 2000.
Kinderdijk is the final station of the water of the Alblasserwaard, an area that is
approximately 10 by 20 miles wide, before the river Lek takes it to the sea.
And even today we still need to dispose the water which comes from rain, but since the
1950's the function of the windmills has been taken over by the pumping station which
is one of the largest in the world.
However in case of emergency the windmills still
can be used and have been operational up to the Second World War.
As you might have noticed: The Dutch citizens have large history in their battle against the water.
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