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We are living in a town with about 40.585 inhabitants called Harderwijk, in the middle
of the country The Netherlands, also known unofficially as Holland, constitutional monarchy
of northwestern Europe, bordered on the north and west by the North Sea, on the east by
Germany, and on the south by Belgium. With Belgium and Luxembourg, The Netherlands forms
the Low, or Benelux, Countries. The Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, islands in the
Caribbean, are part of the Netherlands. The European portion of The Netherlands has a
total area of 41,526 sq km (16,033 sq mi), of which 33,939 sq km (13,104 sq mi) is land
surface. The country's capital and largest city is Amsterdam.
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The Netherlands, as its name suggests, is a low-lying country. About half of the
country's landmass lies below sea level. This amount would increase should the polar ice
caps melt and slowly raise the level of the sea due to global warming. Much of the
western part, situated below sea level, is covered with clay and peat soils interspersed
with canals, rivers, and arms of the sea. Farther to the east the land lies slightly
above sea level and is flat to gently rolling. The elevation rarely exceeds 50 m
(164 ft). Most of the land is devoted to agriculture; only small areas of forest and
heath remain.
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Harderwijk is bordered on the east and south by one of the greatest areas
of this forest and heath and on the west and north by the former Zuiderzee, a large arm
of the sea. A dike separating it from the sea was completed in 1932, when work was begun
to drain about 225,000 hectares (about 556,000 acres) to form reclaimed land known as
polders, such as Flevoland and the North East Polder. About three-quarters of the area
had been reclaimed by the early 1980s. The remaining freshwater lake is called the
IJsselmeer. The part of the IJsselmeer bordering Harderwijk is called Wolderwijd.
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