Description
In the low-lying Netherlands there is flooding of all times. In order to limit this flooding, the population began to protect itself against flooding in the Middle Ages by building dikes along the Zuiderzee and - presumably already - along the large river, such as the IJssel. At the beginning these were still local, loose dikes, but soon these were connected to each other into a contiguous dike system. The many breakthrough brooks show that the elevated Zuiderzee and river dikes were not always resistant to the high water. They are the silent witnesses of a dike breach. Breakthrough chambers are deep round lakes in which the sand has been washed away, because during a dike breach the water broke through the dike with great force. Pipes were built from the late Middle Ages to keep the acid peat water out of the extracted areas. From the end of the 18th century, canals began to be built, which required canal dikes. The IJsselmeer dikes were all built after the construction of the Afsluitdijk in 1933. Unlike the Zuiderzee dikes, these dikes did not have to endure ebb and flow. Dijken helped the inhabitants of Overijssel to acquire land on the Zuiderzee and to make or keep agricultural areas usable, which means that the cultural-historical value of these objects is great. In addition, research into the construction of a dike can provide a lot of information about the development of an area. Both water management and about the residents. The latter because in former times farmers had to maintain their own piece of dike on their land.
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