History and information about De Haarlemmermeer
Haarlemmermeer: Haarlem is a city and meer means lake: the lake of Haarlem.

In the year 1350 there were two dangerous lakes / seas: the Zuiderzee and Haarlemmermeer. The Haarlemmermeer was a very dangerous lake between the cities of Haarlem, Leiden and Amsterdam.

The nickname of the Haarlemmermeer was WATERWOLF: it engulfed many villages. During the centuries it became bigger and bigger. Many ships wrecked in the east part of this lake. This part was known as the hole of the Waterwolf, a grave for ships. The Dutch meaning of ship is schip; a hole in Dutch is hol. Nowadays on the cemetery of the ships from the past is our mean airport situated: Schiphol.

The Waterwolf became very dangerous. So they made plans to dim the lake. In 1641 Jan A. Leeghwater wrote a book called Haarlemmermeerboek. His plan was to build 166 windmills which could pump the water away and drain Haarlemmermeer. But his plan could not be carried out. 

In 1645 De Haarlemmermeer had an area of 15.030 hectares; in 1740 was it 16.540 and during the first part of the 19th century it was 18.539. In 1836 the water stood in the streets of Amsterdam and Leiden and the situation became very dangerous. 

King Willem I decided that the Haarlemmermeer had to be dimmed. In 1845 they started the giant job; for the first time in history they used steam machines to pump the water away. They build three steam machines; one of them, the Cruquius became a museum in 1934. It endured until 1852 when the job was finished. 

Because the Haarlemmermeer used to be a giant lake, you can imagine that this part of Holland is beneath sealevel. Our main airport, Schiphol is situated 6 metres beneath sealevel.

The last few years the steam pump building of Cruquius was renovated. Therefore they placed some hedges around the museum. But they were ugly, so the owner of the Cruquius wanted to decorate the walls of the entrance and contacted people of Meerwaarde (Child Work). They had the idea to let children paint the hedges. The cool thing is that after the renovation, the painted hedges will be saved and will be placed in the gardens of the museum.

In January 2001, Mr. Hajime visited primary school De Wadden and he wanted to visit the museum. However, the museum was closed but a very nice man opened the doors for Mr.. Hajime, his family and us so they were able to walk through the museum. Mr. René taped the Japanese teacher while he was walking through the museum.

Written by Mohammed, Mahir K and Mahir U.