Landsat photo

IJsselmeer (sometimes translated as Lake IJssel, alternative international spelling: Lake Yssel) is a shallow lake of 1100 km² in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland, with an average depth of 5 to 6 m. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands A Dutch province represents the administrative layer in between the national government and the local municipalities having the responsibility for matters of subnational or regional Flevoland is a province of the Netherlands. Located in the centre of the country at the location of the former Zuiderzee, the province was established on North Holland ( Dutch: Noord-Holland,, West Frisian: Noôrd-Holland) is a province situated on the North Sea in the Friesland ( West Frisian: Fryslân, Dutch Friesland) is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the bigger region known It is named after the IJssel river that drains into it via a smaller lake, the Ketelmeer. River IJssel (ˈɛi̯səl sometimes called Gelderse IJssel (" Gelderland IJssel" to avoid confusion with its Hollandse IJssel namesake The internal capitalisation in the spelling is caused by the fact that IJ is a digraph in Dutch, possibly a ligature, and sometimes considered a single letter (see IJ (letter)). Capitalization (or capitalisation &mdash see spelling differences) is writing a word with its first letter as a Majuscule (upper case letter A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname The IJsselmeer is the largest lake in Western Europe. This is a list of lakes of Europe with an average area greater than 100 km² Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe '

The IJsselmeer was created in 1932 when an inland sea, the Zuiderzee, was closed by a 32 km dam, the Afsluitdijk. Year 1932 ( MCMXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. The Zuiderzee (ˌzaɪdɚ ˈzeɪ] Dutch: Zuiderzee, ˈzœydərzeː was a shallow Inlet of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands The Afsluitdijk ( English: Closure Dike Frisian: Ofslútdyk is a major dike in the Netherlands, constructed between 1927 and This was part of a major hydraulic engineering project known as the Zuiderzee Works, that years later led to the reclaiming of land from the IJsselmeer, thereby diminishing the size of the lake. The Zuiderzee Works (Zuiderzeewerken are a human-made system of Dams Land reclamation and water drainage works and the largest Hydraulic engineering

Traditional boat on the IJsselmeer

Sunset over the IJsselmeer

In 1975 the IJsselmeer was further split in two by the completion of the Houtribdijk, now also called Markerwaarddijk, which runs from Enkhuizen southeast to Lelystad. Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Zuiderzee Works (Zuiderzeewerken are a human-made system of Dams Land reclamation and water drainage works and the largest Hydraulic engineering Enkhuizen ( West Frisian: Inghúze is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region Lelystad ( is a Municipality and a City in the centre of the Netherlands, and it is the Capital of the Province of Flevoland This former southern part of the IJsselmeer is now the hydrologically separate Markermeer. The Markermeer is a 700 km² Lake in the central Netherlands in between North Holland, Flevoland and its larger sibling the IJsselmeer

The IJsselmeer functions as a major fresh water reserve, serving as a source for agriculture and drinking water. It also offers plenty of opportunities for various recreational activities.

The province of Flevoland was created in 1986 from the polders reclaimed from the IJsselmeer. Flevoland is a province of the Netherlands. Located in the centre of the country at the location of the former Zuiderzee, the province was established on Year 1986 ( MCMLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar) A polder is a low-lying tract of land enclosed by embankments known as dikes, that forms an artificial hydrological entity meaning it has no connection with