The Netherlands is a very flat country, with almost 25% of its land at or below sea level. Low, rolling hills cover part of the central area, and in the extreme south, the land rises in the foothills of the Ardennes mountains.
For many centuries severe floods devastated the Netherlands, killing tens of thousands of people. Determined to save their homeland and recover from the sea, the Dutch used numerous windmills to pump water out of the low-lying areas. In the 1930s the construction of dams facing the sea efforts continued when the Afsluitdijk (dike) was built.
In this sense, there are several lakes that abound and have been formed in Holland, such as Verplas, which is an artificial lake directly east of the Dutch city of Haarlem. It was excavated in 1994, mainly for recreation purposes and is part of the Spaarnwoude recreation area.
The lake is 450 by 400 meters. The southern coast is made up of a man-made wetland used for water purification. Large numbers of waterfowl can be found here and along the marshy eastern shoreline during the winter season (eg, Montagu's geese, wigeons, common goldeneyes).
The lake is only a short walk away from the Haarlem Spaarnwoude train station and relatively close to the A200 and the A9 motorway. This favorable situation has contributed to making it a popular area for organizing mid-sized large-scale events.
The lake also stands out eemeer located in the center of the Netherlands between the provinces of Utrecht and Flevoland, Noord-Holland. It measures 13,4 square kilometers (5,2 square miles) and contains a small island, the Hond Dode (Dead Dog). The Eemmeer connects to the outlying Gooimeer lakes in the west, at the point where the two lakes are crossed by the A27 motorway bridge, and the Nijkerkernauw in the east.
Another of the lakes is the Grevelingenwhich is an ancient Rhine-Meuse estuary on the border of the Dutch provinces of South Holland and Zeeland that has been turned into a lake due to the Delta works. It is located between the islands of Old Goeree-Overflakkee (South Holland) and Schouwen-Duiveland (Zeeland), which are connected by the Brouwersdam in the west and the Grevelingendam in the east.
