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The Province of Noord-Holland

Noord-Holland (North Holland) may be considered as essentially Dutch, with its polder landscapes, windmills, bulb fields and the vibrant capital city of Amsterdam; the provincial capital, however, is Haarlem, a city with many historical buildings, especially from the 17th Century; it boasts the Netherlands' oldest museum. The province is for the most part a peninsula between the Noordzee and the IJsselmeer; in the north the 30 km barrier dam Afsluitdijk leads to Fryslân and in the south it shares a border with Zuid-Holland and Utrecht.

It has an area of 3,961 km² and a population of around 2.6 million, making it, after Zuid-Holland, the province with the second highest population density. Yet, there are also beauty spots, historical towns and unspoilt villages. Alkmaar is famous for its cheese market, towns like Hoorn and Enkhuizen just breathe history and in villages like Volendam and the former island of Marken the women still adhere to their national dress. And in contrast industry and the ultramodern international Schiphol airport is situated here as well.

Until about 700 years ago North Holland had more water than land; centuries of reclamation of the many lakes produced rich farmland and the Wieringermeer, a large polder produced by building dikes from the mainland to the island of Wieringen in the extreme north east of the province, was started in 1927; and in 1931 the first harvest - barley and rye- was produced. The Afsluitdijk, the barrier dam, was started with the dyke between the mainland and Wieringen (about 2.5 km) and the 30 km dam all the way to Fryslân was closed on 28 May 1932, changing the Zuiderzee, an inland sea, to the freshwater IJsselmeer. It has meant many changes for the communities along the former Zuiderzee; Enkhuizen, no longer with a fishing fleet, has become the biggest watersport centre in the province.

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