Kinderdijk Windmills this Saturday!

Hihi..

Nothing exciting happening this week so far...hehe, just work. So, I have made plans to visit some windmills this Saturday!Yay! And I found really interesting information about the windmills in Holland. The Kinderdijk Windmills are the ones which I plan to see and take photos.

The Netherlands is famous for its windmills. Today there are still more than 1.000 mills. Nowhere in the world you will find as many windmills as near (the Dutch village) Kinderdijk. Around 1740 no less than 19 sturdy mills were built here. They have been well preserved to the present day.

The mills drain the excess water from the Alblasserwaard polders - which are situated below sea-level - after which the water is sluiced into the river Lek.

The powerful mill sails serve to transmit the force of the wind on to large paddle-wheels which scoop up the water. Nowadays power-driven pumping engines do the job, including one of the largest water screw pumping-station in Europe.

The foundation "Wereld Erfgoed Kinderdijk" maintains and preserves the windmills in Kinderdijk. The preservation is not limited to the windmills themselves, but also covers the area in which the windmills are situated.

The foundation makes use of funds from the government and the members of the foundation each contribute to the cost of maintenance. Additional sponsoring should take care of reducing the backlog of repairs.

In 1997 the mills of Kinderdijk were put on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.

UNESCO inscribed the Kinderdijk-Elshout network of windmills on the World Heritage List in 1997. The network attests to the ingenuity and bravery of the Dutch people, who developed a highly intelligent hydraulic system to stabilize and cultivate a large stretch of peat bog in the Netherlands.

Located on the northwest edge of the Alblasserwaard (“land on the water’s edge”), the complex helped drain the inner districts of the Overwaard (“the high land”) and the Nederwaard (“the low land”) until 1950, when the mills were closed. The 19 remaining mills are still in operating condition.

The site and its upstream and downstream polders, equipped with natural drainage systems, rivers and streams, windmills, pumping stations and spillways, have remained virtually unchanged since the 18th century. Today this typically Dutch landscape is officially protected as a cultural monument and a natural reserve.

Sounds really interesting yeah?

So, 99 days till the end of the 2005 windmill season! So what are you waiting for? :)