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What are the canals of Amsterdam like?
Amsterdam’s total length of canals is over 100 kilometers, with some 90 islands and 1,500 bridges, making the city known as the “Venice of the North”.
Much of the Amsterdam canal system is the result of successful urban planning. At the beginning of the 17th century, when immigration was at its peak, a comprehensive plan was also put into effect, namely the simultaneous excavation of four main concentric semi-circular canals, all ending in IJ Bay, called the canal belt (grachtengordel).
The banks of the three canals (Gentry, Kaiser, and Prinsen) are mainly residential, while a fourth outer canal, Singell, today Nassau/Stadhalder, is used for defense and water treatment ( It has now been transformed into a residential and commercial development).
The plan also designed radial canals to interconnect these major canals; a series of parallel canals in the Jordaan district (originally used for the transport of goods, such as beer); and more than 100 bridges. Nassau/Stadhalder was originally used for defensive purposes, including a moat and earthen embankment, with doors opening at access points but no masonry superstructure.
The building progresses from west to east, across the planned area, which historian Geert Mak says resembles a giant windshield wiper—not from the center to the periphery as is commonly said. Construction of the northwest section began in 1613 and was completed around 1625.
After 1664, construction of the southern section began, but progress was slow due to the depression. The eastern part of the Concentric Ring Canal Plan – covering the area between the Amstel River and IJ Bay – was not implemented for a long time. In the centuries that followed, much of that land became parks, botanical gardens, nursing homes, theaters, and other public facilities, with no more waterways planned.
The city and some parts of the urban area are dry, recognizable by the suffix -meer (meaning “lake”), e.g. Aalsmeer, Bijlmermeer, Haarlemmermeer (Haarlemmermeer), and Watergraafsmeer (Watergraafsmeer).
Amsterdam is a city of water, very beautiful and beautiful. The river network is staggered and the river course is vertical and horizontal. There are 165 large and small canal channels that are manually excavated or trimmed. There are more than 2,000 “boat houses” on the river, although they are houseboats, they are fully equipped. A glass boat tour of Amsterdam can truly experience the unique charm of the water city.
The cruise boat travels through the famous river channels, which are lined with typical Dutch traditional residential buildings. The characteristic is that the front of the house and the windows are slender. This is because the property tax was levied according to the area of the facade at that time, and the savvy Dutch tried to reduce the area of the front as much as possible in order to save tax. Because the facade is small, the decoration is put on the gable of the roof. A closer look will reveal that the gables of each house are different.
Due to the narrow door, large furniture items need to enter through the window, so the room has a protruding hook. Amsterdam’s famous canals include the Kaiser’s Canal, the Prince’s Canal, and the Gentry’s Canal.
Amsterdam’s annual music festival “Canal Music Festival” will start in mid-August, transforming Amsterdam from a quiet historical capital into the most gorgeous music palace in the Netherlands.
The Canal Music Festival originated from the “Prince’s Canal Concert” 21 years ago, when a pianist named Barbara Nisman held an open-air piano recital on the Prince’s Canal at the invitation of the Hotel Pulitzer Hotel. It was just a simple concert on a dilapidated cruise ship, but it was warmly welcomed and later expanded into a 5-day music festival, collectively known as the “Canal Music Festival”.
