Markermeer in the context of "Afsluitdijk"

Hoorn (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦoːr(ə)n] ) is a city and municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the largest town and the traditional capital of the region of West Friesland. Hoorn is located on the Markermeer, 20 kilometers (12 mi) east of Alkmaar and 35 kilometers (22 mi) north of Amsterdam. The municipality has just over 75,000 inhabitants and a land area of 20.38 km (7.87 sq mi), making it the third most densely populated municipality in North Holland after Haarlem and Amsterdam. Apart from the city of Hoorn, the municipality includes the villages of Blokker and Zwaag, as well as parts of the hamlets De Bangert [nl], De Hulk and Munnickaij [nl].

Hoorn is well known in the Netherlands for its rich history. The town acquired city rights in 1357 and flourished during the Dutch Golden Age. In this period, Hoorn developed into a prosperous port city, being home to one of the six chambers of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Towards the end of the eighteenth century, however, it started to become increasingly more difficult for Hoorn to keep competing with nearby Amsterdam. Ultimately, it lost its function as port city and became a regional center of trade, mainly serving the smaller villages of West Friesland. Nowadays, Hoorn is a city with modern residential areas and a historic city center that, due to its proximity to Amsterdam, is sometimes considered to be part of the Randstad metropolitan area. Cape Horn and the Hoorn Islands were both named after this city.

Flevoland (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈfleːvoːlɑnt] ) is the twelfth and newest province of the Netherlands, established in 1986, when the southern and eastern Flevopolders, together with the Noordoostpolder, were merged into one provincial entity. It is in the centre of the country in the former Zuiderzee, which was turned into the freshwater IJsselmeer by the closure of the Afsluitdijk in 1932. Almost all of the land belonging to Flevoland was reclaimed in the 1950s and 1960s while splitting the Markermeer and bordering lakes from the IJsselmeer. As to dry land, it is the smallest province of the Netherlands at 1,410 km (540 sq mi), but not gross land as that includes much of the waters of the fresh water lakes (meres) mentioned.

The province had a population of about 445,000 as of January 2023 and consists of six municipalities. Its capital is Lelystad and its most populous city is Almere, which forms part of the Randstad and has grown to become the seventh largest city of the country. Flevoland is bordered in the extreme north by Friesland, in the northeast by Overijssel, and in the northwest by the lakes Markermeer and IJsselmeer. In the southeast, the province borders on Gelderland; in the southwest on Utrecht and North Holland. Outside urban areas, the land in Flevoland is predominantly used for agriculture.

The IJmeer is a 'bordering lake' (Randmeer) in the Netherlands straddling the provinces of North Holland and Flevoland. Namely, it is the southwestern section of the Markermeer. It is an important habitat for birds such as the tufted duck and scaup.

Waterland (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋaːtərlɑnt] ) is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is situated north of Amsterdam, on the western shore of the Markermeer. It includes the tourist towns of Broek in Waterland and Marken.

The Zuiderzee or Zuider Zee (Dutch: [ˌzœydərˈzeː] ; old spelling Zuyderzee or Zuyder Zee), historically called Lake Almere and Lake Flevo, was a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands. It extended about 100 km (62 mi) inland and at most 50 km (31 mi) wide, with an overall depth of about 4 to 5 m (13 to 16 ft) and a coastline of about 300 km (190 mi). It covered 5,000 km (1,900 sq mi). Its name is Dutch for "southern sea", indicating that the name originates in Friesland, to the north of the Zuiderzee (cf. North Sea).

It is generally acknowledged that the Zuiderzee existed from roughly 1170, following the devastating All Saints' Flood, until 1932, when the Afsluitdijk was completed. The majority of the Zuiderzee was closed off from the North Sea, leaving the mouth of the inlet to become part of the Wadden Sea. The salt water inlet changed into a fresh water lake now called the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake) after the river that drains into it, and by means of drainage and polders, an area of some 1,500 km (580 sq mi) was reclaimed as land. This land eventually became the province of Flevoland. Part of the IJsselmeer was also divided into the Markermeer.

The Eemmeer (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈeːmeːr]) is a lake situated in the middle of the Netherlands between the provinces of Flevoland, Utrecht, and North Holland. It measures 13.4 square kilometres (5.2 sq mi) and contains one small island, the Dode Hond (Dead Dog). The Eemmeer is one in a series of peripheral lakes used to geohydrologically detach the low-lying polders of Flevoland from higher old mainland. The Eemmeer is connected to the peripheral lakes Gooimeer in the west, at the point where both lakes are crossed by the highway A27 bridge, and the Nijkerkernauw in the east. It is also connected to the lakes at the southern side of Markermeer near Amsterdam. The feeders of this lake system are the River IJssel (Rhine branch) and drains towards the North Sea.

Marken (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmɑrkə(n)]; Marken's dialect: Mereke) is a village in the municipality of Waterland in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It had a population of 1,730 as of 2024, and occupies a peninsula in the Markermeer. It was, until 1957, an island in the former Zuiderzee. The characteristic wooden houses of Marken are a tourist attraction.

The Markerwaard is the name of a proposed, but never built, polder adjoining the IJsselmeer in the central Netherlands. Its construction would have resulted in the near-total reclamation of the Markermeer.

Cornelis Lely's plan projected a polder in the south-west of the Zuiderzee, originally named Hoornsche Polder, referring to Hoorn, then simply "Southwest Polder". Later the name was changed to Markerwaard Polder, after the island of Marken. However, reclamation of three other polders took place first, and preparations for the Markerwaard were being made while draining of the northeast and southeast polders (today's Flevoland) were underway.