Mill-network at Kinderdijk-Elshout #07 Molens Kinderdijk

For nearly two centuries the windmills of Kinderdijk have pumped excess water out of the polder. The Mill Network has all the elements of a hydraulic system to keep the land dry: dykes, pumping stations, reservoirs and of course the windmill.
Using wind to manage water goes back to the early 1500s. Old tax returns show that drainage using windmills was already common practice in this area. By trial and error the district water boards discovered what was and what was not feasible. Reclaiming a low-lying polder would mean the streams in the surrounding area were higher than in the swampy peat area of the polder. As a result the water would run into the polder instead of out. This development demanded ever larger works for water management, resulting in today's Kinderdijk.
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