IJsselmeer, The Netherlands

The IJsselmeer also known as Lake IJssel in English, is a closed off inland bay in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland. It covers an area of 1,100 km² (420 sq mi) with an average depth of 5.5 m (18 ft). The river IJssel flows into the IJsselmeer.

IJsselmeer (Lake in The Netherlands)

Order Image 13.549

IJsselmeer (Lago en los Países Bajos)

Two thousand years ago Pomponius Mela, a Roman geographer, mentioned a complex of lakes at the current location of the IJsselmeer. He called it Lacus Flevo. Over the centuries, the lake banks crumbled away due to flooding and wave action and the lake grew considerably. During the 12th and 13th centuries, storm surges and rising sea levels flooded large areas of land between the lake and the North Sea, turning the lake into a bay of the North Sea, called the Zuiderzee

IJsselmeer (See in den Niederlanden)

艾瑟尔米尔（荷兰湖）

In 1932 the Zuiderzee was closed off by the Afsluitdijk, a 32-kilometre (20 mi) dyke connecting Friesland and North Holland on either side of the Zuiderzee. The Zuiderzee was no longer a sea inlet and was renamed IJsselmeer. The continuing flow of fresh riverwater soon flushed out the saltwater. From 1929 till 1967, over half the IJsselmeer was drained, creating 1,979 km² (764 sq mi) of polders: Wieringermeerpolder, Noordoostpolder, East and South Flevoland.

IJsselmeer (Lac aux Pays-Bas)

Эйсселмер (озеро в Нидерландах)

Order Image 13.550

IJsselmeer (Hollanda’da Göl)

In 1975, a dyke was built between Enkhuizen and Lelystad as northern boundary of the Markerwaard, a planned but never realized polder in the IJsselmeer. This dyke, the Houtribdijk or Markerwaarddijk, split the IJsselmeer in two parts. The former southern part of the IJsselmeer is now the hydrologically separate Markermeer. The proposed polderisation of the Markerwaard was abandoned after many of the Dutch population did not want the loss of the traditional seaside (now lakeside) environment and vistas. In 1986 three polders in the IJsselmeer constituted the new province of Flevoland, the twelfth province of the Netherlands.