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A canal in Amsterdam
The main cities of the Netherlands are close together. They are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. These three cities and their suburbs form an area called the Randstad. Many people live in this small area, which now is rather like one big city as each has spread outwards.
However, each of the three cities still keeps its own identity and purpose. Amsterdam and Rotterdam developed into business and industrial centres. The Hague is where the government meets and works from, although Amsterdam is the nation's capital.
The city of Utrecht, in the centre of the country, is the centre of the road and rail network. It is also the national centre for education, business services, exhibitions and conferences.
The Netherlands is a flat, low-lying country
criss-crossed with waterways. About half of the land is actually
lower than the level of the sea. Walls called dikes, like the
one pictured left, have been built to stop the land being flooded
by the sea.
The famous Dutch windmills are wind powered pumps to help keep the land dry.
It is only in the southeast of the country that the land gets higher than sea level. Most of the rural land is used for farming, and there are only small areas of forest remaining.
Modern Windmills
In the southwest there are deltas where rivers join the sea, with many small islands and waterways. Along the North Sea, there are dunes and an area that is protected by dikes and kept dry by mechanical pumping. There is a great deal of reclaimed land. This means that new land is formed and the water drained away. The reclaimed land is called polders. In the southern part of the Netherlands there are hills, and Vaalserberg, the country's highest point, is here.
There are several
main rivers in the Netherlands. One is the Rhine, flowing from
Germany, and its several branches such as the Waal and Lek rivers.
There is the Maas, a branch of the Meuse River, and there is the
Schelde River, flowing from Belgium. 
These rivers and their branches form
the delta with its many islands. The Netherlands is criss crossed
by many canals and lakes, and with the rivers, this means that
ships can leave the sea and travel into the inside of Europe.
For pictures
of Amsterdam, click here
http://www.amsterdam.info/pictures/
and here for a free photo gallery: black and white and colour photos of Amsterdam, The Netherlands http://www.world-city-photos.org/Amsterdam/
Acknowledge
this source in your bibliography like this:
The Netherlands
(2003). [Online],
Available: www.kidcyber.com.au
Back
to The Netherlands Index page
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and Places
updated November 2006