!!!Windmills

by Dmitry Moiseenko and Stas Sedov,
members of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

13 May 2016

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

Windmills were invented a long time ago, and for quite a long period of
time it was the only mechanism used by people. In the 19th century
windmills were eventually replaced by the newly developed steam engines.
This happened in many countries except Holland. And the reason for it is
was the location of the country.

To begin with, the name "Holland" is not quite correct for this country:
North and South Holland are only two of the state's twelve provinces.
These two regions were economically and technically more developed than
the others, that's why the name became widely known outside the country.
But the official name of the state — "Netherlands" — literally means
"lower countries": a reminder that people started inhabiting this area
in the low river deltas. About half of the territory, which is occupied
by around 60% of the country's population, lies below the sea level;
around one third of the territory is not higher than one meter above sea
level. Approximately 10% of the land has been reclaimed from the sea and
lakes, and windmills played an important part in this process.

[{Image src='01_Holland. Windmills.jpg' caption='Holland. Windmills' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='594'}]

While reclaiming the lands from the water, the Dutchmen built the system
of the parallel channels and the windmills pumped water outside the
causeway that surrounded the drained area. It was also very important
for the reclaimed lands (polders) to stay dry. For this purpose, special
windmills were developed: they could pump water and keep it in the inner
pool on the sublevel between the level of polders and the water level in
rivers.

[{Image src='02_Holland. Windmills.jpg' caption='Holland. Windmills' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='548'}]

Nowadays the water level is controlled automatically with the help of
modern techniques and pumping stations, but before the development of
such modern technologies every village had a windmill. At that time
Holland was called "the country of 10,000 windmills". By now their
number has lessened to 1,000, but still it is more than in any other
country. There is no other use of them but to become a historical
heritage.

Among the villages known for having windmills there is Zaanse Schans
located in the northern part of the country. They say that Napoleon, who
happened to visit this place, described this village as "one of a kind".
Now there is a museum in the open air with a collection of
well-preserved windmills and ancient wooden houses dated the 17th-18th
centuries.

[{Image src='03_Holland. Windmills.jpg' caption='Holland. Windmills' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='721'}]

Kinderdijk village, belonging to the province South Holland and situated
at the confluence of the Lek and Noord rivers, is not of the less
interest. In order to drain the polder, a system of 19 windmills was
built in 1740 and now this group of mills is the largest concentration
of old windmills in the whole country. In 1997 this complex became a
UNESCO World Heritage Site. Despite all the knowledge and draining
technologies created by the Dutch, the water still was a problem and
there was no way for them to take complete control over it. Kinderdijk,
as many other villages in Holland, continuously suffered floods and
damaged causeways.

[{Image src='04_Holland. Windmills.jpg' caption='Holland. Windmills' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='594'}]

In the same province there is the city of Schiedam with five remaining
windmills: having the height of around 40 meters, they are the highest
mills in the world. In 2006 a modern wind turbine, which actually looks
like a traditional windmill, was built here.

By the way, the first wind turbines producing electricity were created
in the 19th century in Denmark; as for Holland, at that period of time
this country was occupied with the draining problem. But now wind
turbines are more commonly used here: as of the year 2014, the
Netherlands was the 17th country in the world in the amount of the
wind-produced energy.

[{Image src='05_Holland. Windmills.jpg' caption='Holland. Windmills' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='594'}]

The windmills are not used in the way they were designed anymore, but
they are not forgotten. The second Saturday of May is the National Mill
Day in the Netherlands. On that day more than 600 windmills open their
doors to visitors and millers show and share their skills. As for us, we
don't have to wait a special day to get better acquainted with the most
interesting part of Holland's history: all you have to do is open our
panoramas and begin the tour.

\\ \\
[12 Panoramas of Holland Windmills|Geography/Europe/Netherlands/Pictures/Panoramas_of_Holland_Windmills]










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