WEST FRISIAN ENCLOSURE DYKE

More than 1,200 years ago, West Friesland was still a peat swamp, lying above sea level. The first pioneers marked out plots of land and dug ditches to drain excess water.
Road and dike villages emerged along roads and dikes that served as bases for reclamation, with elongated plots (strip farming).
When you drain water from peat soil, it sinks: subsidence. The peat plants also come above water and decay due to the oxygen in the air: oxidation. Little remains of the peat layer that once lay on the surface in West Friesland due to subsidence and oxidation. Eventually, the West Frisian soil sank below sea level.
Meanwhile, the Zuiderzee steadily eroded West Friesland. Large lakes also emerged that threatened West Friesland on the southern side and were only reclaimed in the 17th century, such as the Schermer and the Beemster. Dikes were built against the encroaching water. By around 1250, all these connected dikes already formed a whole: The West Frisian Ring Dike.
The West Frisian Ring Dike 'surrounds' West Friesland: 126 kilometers of dike from Hoorn to Enkhuizen, Medemblik, Schagen, Alkmaar, and then back to Hoorn. Once, this dike protected people and animals from the salty water. Now, this 126-kilometer-long monument weaves through the West Frisian landscape alongside traditional farms, the former Zuiderzee, VOC cities, polders, and mills.

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