Windmills of Kinderdijk
Landmark
Nineteen windmills that kept the Dutch polders dry.
Much of the Netherlands lies below sea level, so water has to be pumped out all the time. Around 1740 nineteen windmills were built at Kinderdijk to do exactly that.
The mills lifted water out of the low polder and passed it on, step by step, to the river. Modern pumping stations do the work now, but the mills can still turn.
- windmills
- 19
- built around
- 1740
- World Heritage since
- 1997
- 1
The millers lived inside the mills with their families. Some mills are still lived in.
- 2
The position of the sails was a message: it could show joy, or mourning.
- 3
The name means children's dyke. The story goes that after a great flood in 1421 a cradle washed ashore here, with a baby in it.
Question 1 of 2
What were the windmills of Kinderdijk for?
- Canals of AmsterdamRings of water around a city that was built on poles.
- AtomiumAn iron crystal blown up 165 billion times, in Brussels.
- AfsluitdijkA dam of 32 kilometres that turned a sea into a lake.
- VaalserbergThe highest point of the Netherlands, where three countries meet.
It is in the Netherlands.
Read about the Netherlands