Amsterdam Attractions: World Travel Map Highlights—Europe, Netherlands, Amsterdam, A Journey in Amsterdam

Explore famous tourist attractions around the world through a world tourism map and appreciate the magnificent landscapes of our planet.

Part 7: Netherlands, Europe

Netherlands: A country in Western Europe. It borders the North Sea to the west and north, Germany to the east, and Belgium to the south. Area: 41,528 square kilometers (including inland sea). Population: 17.52 million. Capital: Amsterdam, with the government seated in The Hague. The entire country is lowland, with one-third of its land less than 1 meter above sea level and one-quarter below sea level. Since the 13th century, more than 7,000 square kilometers of land have been reclaimed, equivalent to one-fifth of the country’s land area. Located at the mouths of the Rhine and Meuse rivers, with a network of canals. It has a temperate maritime climate with mild winters and cool summers. Natural gas resources are relatively abundant. The bourgeois revolution broke out in the 16th century, and it was a world colonial power in the 17th century. It has advanced industries, mainly steel, shipbuilding, oil refining, chemicals, and electronics. Agricultural production is modernized, with large exports of eggs, dairy products, and flowers. Maritime and inland river transportation are well-developed, with Rotterdam and Amsterdam as important ports. It is a member of NATO and the European Community.

Amsterdam Attractions: World Travel Map Highlights—Europe, Netherlands, Amsterdam, A Journey in Amsterdam

Amsterdam Attractions: World Travel Map Highlights—Europe, Netherlands, Amsterdam, A Journey in Amsterdam

Amsterdam Attractions: World Travel Map Highlights—Europe, Netherlands, Amsterdam, A Journey in Amsterdam

I. Zaanse Schans Windmill Village

Located 10 kilometers north of Amsterdam, it is a beautiful ancient village, known as the “Dutch Windmill Museum”, which collects and preserves well-maintained ancient Dutch windmills and houses, making it a famous tourist attraction in the Netherlands. For tourists, Zaanse Schans Windmill Village is an open-air museum, but for the Dutch people of the 17th-18th centuries, it was a place for life and work. Here you can see how the Dutch used windmills to generate power and grind wood for making pigments.

The windmills and various handicraft workshops in Zaanse Schans create a tranquil and beautiful rural landscape. The village still preserves the original appearance of the Zaan region from the 17th and 18th centuries. 250 years ago, more than 800 windmills stood on this small piece of land, undertaking various industrial tasks. Today, as a tourist attraction, Zaanse Schans, with its authentic houses, ancient shipyards, wooden shoe-making demonstrations, and windmills, attracts thousands of visitors every year. It is said that Russian Tsar Peter the Great learned shipbuilding here, and even French Napoleon praised the beauty of this place. The best ways to tour Zaanse Schans are by cycling and taking a boat trip along the Zaan River.

Amsterdam Attractions: World Travel Map Highlights—Europe, Netherlands, Amsterdam, A Journey in Amsterdam

II. Keukenhof Park

Every late March, the famous Keukenhof Park in the Netherlands features more than six million flowers, unreservedly displaying their unique splendor. Colorful tulips, crocuses, hyacinths, and daffodils compete to announce the arrival of spring.

The tulips that the Dutch are most proud of vie for beauty in pink-purple, bright yellow, tender red, and pure white, spreading across the land like an endless, richly colored carpet, making them impossible to ignore. Besides the splendid sea of flowers outdoors, the exhibition halls also feature various flower shows, horticultural demonstrations, as well as painting and photography exhibitions.

In addition, the design of the themed gardens serves as a source of inspiration for gardening enthusiasts planning their own gardens. There are also specially designed activities for children such as adventure journeys, garden mazes, and ranch experiences.

The current location of Keukenhof was a hunting ground in the 15th century, where various plants for cooking were grown for the castle kitchen. “Keukenhof” means “kitchen garden.” At the proposal of the mayor of Lisse and some bulb growers and exporters, the first open-air flower exhibition was held in 1949. Later, the flower exhibition expanded into an annual flower event, attracting a large number of tourists from all over the world.

Amsterdam Attractions: World Travel Map Highlights—Europe, Netherlands, Amsterdam, A Journey in Amsterdam

III. Muiden Castle

Located at the mouth of the Vecht River in Muiden, North Holland, about 15 kilometers southeast of Amsterdam, it is a well-preserved medieval castle and one of the most famous castles in the Netherlands, appearing in many television programs set in the Middle Ages.

Muiden Castle was originally built by Count Floris V in 1280 as a military fortress, with the purpose of controlling the trade route to Utrecht. The castle was abandoned for many years afterward. The current appearance of the castle was built between 1370 and 1386 on the original foundation and has served as a courthouse, prison, residence for the lord of the castle, barracks, and ammunition depot.

The castle is surrounded by a beautiful moat, with walkable high walls around it and arcades on both sides. The interior decoration of the castle is filled with artistic atmosphere, with artworks and daily items from the era of the famous Dutch poet and writer P.C. Hooft visible everywhere. Currently, the castle serves as a museum, with the rooms and kitchens restored to their 17th-century appearance. Some rooms house collections of weapons and armor, making it well worth a visit.

Amsterdam Attractions: World Travel Map Highlights—Europe, Netherlands, Amsterdam, A Journey in Amsterdam

IV. 17th-century concentric canal belt of Amsterdam

Located in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam, this heritage site is not only an optimized urban water conservancy project but also a work of architectural design art. With approximately 90 islands and 1,500 bridges, the city is known as the ‘Venice of the North’ and serves as an example of large-scale urban planning.

This canal network is located to the west and south of the historic towns and medieval towns, which surround the old city center, extending inward along the defensive boundaries up to the Singel Canal. The construction of the canal network was a long-term process, with the main task being to drain the concentric arc-shaped marshlands through canals and to fill in the intermediate empty spaces to expand the urban area. These new spaces could be used for the unified development of commercial buildings and numerous monumental structures. Amsterdam’s urban expansion was the largest and most well-balanced of its kind during this historical period. This historic district is also an example of large-scale urban planning that continued to be referenced worldwide until the 19th century.

Amsterdam Attractions: World Travel Map Highlights—Europe, Netherlands, Amsterdam, A Journey in Amsterdam

V. Amsterdam Defense Line

Built between 1883-1920, it is the only defensive structure built for water control purposes. Since the 16th century, the Dutch people have utilized the specialized knowledge of hydraulic engineering technicians for defensive purposes. To ensure the safety of the central part of the country, 45 fortresses were built on the dams, equipped with cannons for flood defense, along with a system of channels and locks. In this man-made landscape, there are many buildings made of mixed concrete and brick structures. They were mainly used for military purposes, or more specifically, for national defense. They seem to symbolize a distant era, an era of many changes. However, not all buildings here have such a distant history. The defense works around Amsterdam are called the “Amsterdam Defense Line,” which is actually a circular construction site surrounding the capital of Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Defense City was established by the Ministry of Defense between 1880 and 1920. Although some of these fortresses were included in the construction plans, they were never built. Additionally, the construction plan also determined the scope for building secondary batteries and temporary civil engineering works. These temporary civil engineering projects could be built at once. In this region, many ordnance warehouses are scattered throughout. The central warehouses for these ordnances are in Zaandam and the Amsterdam Defense City. The above are all the defense works built by the Netherlands to protect national property. The Amsterdam Defense Line became the last line of defense to protect the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In this way, it provided strong military support for the Netherlands’ neutral policy position.

Amsterdam Attractions: World Travel Map Highlights—Europe, Netherlands, Amsterdam, A Journey in Amsterdam

Six. Beemster Polder

Created in the early 17th century, it is the earliest area developed by the Dutch. It preserves the well-planned rural landscape of that time, with fields, roads, canals, dikes, and settlements all presenting an ancient Renaissance scene.

In the early 17th century, due to the severe situation of large-scale shortage of arable land caused by erosion from seawater and sea wind, the Dutch government decided in 1607 to drain the water from the Beemster area to expand the cultivated land area. In 1612, the land reclamation work was completed, with the new land being 3.5 meters below sea level and composed of fertile clay. The land was divided into rectangular plots, a pattern that also reflected the ideal model of harmonious relationship between humans and their living environment in the 17th century.

Amsterdam Attractions: World Travel Map Highlights—Europe, Netherlands, Amsterdam, A Journey in Amsterdam

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