When the sun rises by Trudiefotografie

About "When the sun rises"

by Trudiefotografie

About the artwork

The Kinderdijk mills are nineteen mills in the northwestern part of the Alblasserwaard, a region in the Dutch province of South Holland. Although they are referred to as belonging to the village of Kinderdijk (municipality of Molenlanden), one mill lies just outside it (De Blokker), in the municipality of Alblasserdam.

These are basin mills, which form two mill galleries and are a major (also international) tourist attraction. Since 1997, they have been on UNESCO's World Heritage List and the area is also a protected village sight. The mill rows can be easily visited only on foot or by bicycle. Three mills are open to the public.

The mills at Kinderdijk were built from the end of the 15th century, but almost all of the current mills date from 1738 and 1740. This is the largest surviving concentration of classical mills in the world, which has greatly contributed to the international image of the Netherlands.

Function of the mills
The Kinderdijk mills were built to pump up water from the low-lying polder. Almost all of them are ground-sailers. At the bottom of each mill is a scoop wheel, which raises the water, often with a height difference of 140 centimetres. There is also one seesaw mill, De Blokker, among the mills of Kinderdijk.

In Alblasserwaard, the mills move the water in two stages. First, water is pumped from a polder into a basin water. Two large storage basin waters meet at Kinderdijk. These are the Groote- or Achterwaterschap on behalf of the Boezem van de Overwaard and the Nieuwe Waterschap on behalf of the Boezem van de Nederwaard. They discharge at Elshout, northwest of the Alblasserwaard and drain into the river Lek.