Flevoland

Flevoland is a province of the Netherlands. Located in the centre of the country, at the location of the former Zuiderzee, the province was established on January 1, 1986; the twelfth province of the country, with Lelystad as its capital. The province has approximately 370,000 inhabitants (2005) and consists of 6 municipalities.

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After a flood in 1916, it was decided that the Zuiderzee, an inland sea within the Netherlands, would be closed and reclaimed: the Zuiderzee Works started. In 1932, the Afsluitdijk was completed, which closed off the sea completely. The Zuiderzee was subsequently called IJsselmeer (lake at the end of the river IJssel).

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The first part of the new lake that was reclaimed was the Noordoostpolder (Northeast polder). This new land included, the former islands of Urk and Schokland and it was included with the province of Overijssel.

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After this, other parts were also reclaimed: the eastern part in 1957 and the southern part in 1968. The municipalities on the three parts voted to become a separate province, which happened in 1986.

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At Flevoland there is a large mediumwave broadcasting facility called Mediumwave transmitter Flevoland.

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Flevoland was named after Lacus Flevo, a name recorded in Roman sources for a large inland lake that was where the south part of the Zuiderzee was later.

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Draining the Flevoland polders found many wrecks of aircraft that crashed into the IJseelmeer during WWII, and also fossils of Pleistocene mammals.

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Netherlands: The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland; IPA pronunciation: /"ne:d?rlant/) is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that is formed by the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.(Dutch: Koninkrijk der Nederlanden). The Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional m...

Zuiderzee: The Zuiderzee (; , ) was a shallow inlet of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands, extending about 100 km (60 miles) inland and at most 50 km (30 miles) wide, with an overall depth of about 4 to 5 metres (13-16 feet) and a coastline of about 300 km (200 miles). It covered ...

January 1: January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Here a calendar year refers to the order in which the months are displayed, January to December. The first day of the medieval Julian year was usually a day other than January 1. This day was adopted as the f...