Kinderdijk – situated in a polder, a low-lying tract of land enclosed by dikes.
The Dutch have a long history of reclamation of marshes and fenland, with some 3000 polders nationwide, epitomized by the saying
“God created the world, but the Dutch created Holland”. The first polders were constructed in the 11th century and drained by windmills.
A system of 19 windmills was built in 1740 to drain the Kinderdijk polder.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, it is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands.