The windmills of Kinderdijk

Kinderdijk is a village in the Netherlands, partly in the municipality Nieuw-Lekkerland, partly in the municipality of Alblasserdam. It lies about 15km east of Rotterdam. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... Nieuw-Lekkerland (population: 9,539 in 2004) is a town in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. ... Alblasserdam (population: 18,386 in 2004) is a town in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. ... Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands (after Amsterdam), located in the province of South Holland. ...

The village is situated in a polder at the confluence of the rivers Lek and Noord. To drain the polder, a system of 19 windmills was built around 1740. This group of mills is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands. A polder is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. ... Satellite image of the east bit of the Rhine-Meuse delta showing river Lek (e) — the Kromme Rijn stream is too small to show up on this picture. ... The Noord (North) is a stretch of river in South Holland in the Netherlands. ... Pitstone Windmill, believed to be the oldest windmill in the British Isles A windmill is an engine powered by the energy of wind. ...

The windmills of Kinderdijk are one of the best known Dutch tourist sites. They were placed on the list of UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997. Elabana Falls is in Lamington National Park, part of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves World Heritage site in Queensland, Australia. ...

Origin of the name

The name Kinderdijk is Dutch for "Child's Dike". It is said that in 1421 during the Saint Elizabeth flood of 1421, when the terrible storm had subsided, someone went up to the dike to see what could be saved. He saw in the distance a wooden cradle floating. There was no hope that anything would be living in it, but when it approached, movement was seen. When the cradle came nearer, someone saw that a cat was in the cradle trying to keep it in balance by jumping back and forth so that no water could come into it. When the cradle eventually came near the dike, someone fished the cradle out and saw that in it a baby slept quiet and dry. The Sint Elisabethsvloed (St. ... Dyke (normal International spelling) or Dike (normal American spelling) can mean several things: A dyke / dike is a long wall built to keep out the sea or enclose land. ... Cradle was a band that Suzi Quatro played in, in the early 1970s before she became a huge star. ... Trinomial name Felis silvestris catus Schreber, 1775 The cat, also called domestic cat or house cat, is a small feline carnivorous mammal. ... For other meanings of the word balance, see: propaganda equilibrium (disambiguation page) sense of balance weighing scale analytical balance (a precise weighing scale) balance beam in gymnastics Balance (song) homeostasis, the biological balance within a human or other animals body When the weights on the plates of this balance... A human infant The word Infant derives from the Latin in-fans, meaning unable to speak. ...

External link

http://www.kinderdijk.nl