Most cities in the world have important people who work behind-the-scenes to keep them running smoothly. Some examples are folks who pick up garbage, deliver mail, drive ambulances and operate fire trucks. But some cities have additional needs due to geographic, climatic or other reasons. The Netherlands is one such city that has a very specific need that I am going to talk to you about!
The Dutch have to take a different approach, than citiy planners in the U.S., to building their cities due to the fact that most of their country is filled with water. Also, since the country has a rather small landmass, they have to get creative about comfortably fitting 17 million people in an area that is smaller than Maryland! Keep reading to find out how you build a city on top of a lake.
The Netherlands started off with lots of lakes in the middle of the country. But the people who lived here wanted to build more houses and buildings. In order to do this, they had to find a way to drain the lakes and claim the land back. How did they do this? By building windmills! Have you seen windmills in real life, on TV or in photos?
Windmills are like giant fans whose blades move when the wind blows against them.
