Het Land van Leeghwater largely consists of polder land, land below the sea level. Building and residing here are only possible thanks to the dikes and artificially keeping the water level low. This used to be done with hundreds of windmills, but today it is done using advanced pumping stations. With its ditches, canals, pastures and locks, the landscape has been excavated and rebuilt over the course of more than 1,000 years. Locks, roads and pastures were constructed in accordance with rigidly straight geometric principles and pretty much none of this has changed since the Golden Age. Reason enough for UNESCO to have added this area to their world heritage list.