The shores of northern Europe, including the Kingdom of the Netherlands, are washed by the North Sea. It is quite shallow and belongs to the Atlantic Ocean basin. The sea in Holland was previously called the German Sea, and the shallowest part of it in the south sometimes stands out as a separate Wadden Sea.
Statistics know everything
In the language of numbers, the North Sea can be described rather briefly:
- Its coastline stretches for six thousand kilometers, while 450 kilometers is the coast of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
- The average depth of the sea in Holland is 95 meters, and the maximum is 725 meters. The depth of two-thirds of the area of the reservoir does not reach 100 meters.
- The indicator of the volume of water in the North Sea sounds quite impressive - 94 thousand cubic meters. km, but in fact it is small compared to other bodies of water on the planet. The reason for this is the relative shallowness and small area of 750 thousand square meters. km.
- A third of the kingdom's territory protrudes no more than a meter above sea level, and another 40% are completely below zero.
Several large rivers flow into the North Sea, the most famous of which are the Rhine, Elbe and Thames. Significant world-class ports at sea in Holland are Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
People against the sea
The North Sea in Holland has confronted people for centuries, unleashing destructive waves on the shores of the country. Hardworking Dutchmen not only do not concede an inch of the earth to the elements, but also reclaim new territories from it with the help of protective dams and embankments and the "Delta Plan" reclamation program. It involves windmills, pumping the seawater of lowlands and swamps and transforming salty areas into fertile fields.
The reclaimed lands are called polders. For several decades of implementation of the land reclamation program, the sea in Holland was forced to part with 4.5 thousand square meters. km. their territories. One of the main achievements of the country's inhabitants in the 1930-1950s of the last century was the drainage of the bay and the creation of an entire province on the resulting land, called Flevoland.
There is a saying in the kingdom that God created the sea, and the Dutch made the shores, and to those who know the country well, this does not seem an exaggeration at all.
