Schokland Museum 1

Schokland was an island in the Zuider Zee, and the waxings and wanings of the North Sea since the middle ages enabled it to be variously a fishing village, a fortress, an abandoned fortress, a fishing village, a destitute fishing village, then, by royal order in 1859, an abandoned destitute fishing village. The sea was too dangerous and unpredictable. Prior to the middle ages (much prior), it was high, dry land, with much evidence of paleolithic and then neolithic human habitation, plus, earlier habitation by your standard Ice Age and post-Ice Age varmints...giant bears, sabre-tooth tigers, wooly mammouths, etc. Presently, Schokland, well inland, is home to the Schokland Museum, perhaps the smallest of all UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but the first of Netherands' many sites to be so recognized. It is a succinct but powerful statement of what the Zuider Zee was like, of the Zuider Zee Works, and of their aftermaths. It's a longer day trip from Amsterdam, but worth it in every respect. The 15 minute video presentation (in English too) is excellent.

In olden days, prior to 1932, it was here

Aerial view, nowadays, from which you can see the outlines
of the old island; in the north-east polder, north of Flevoland
(did you know that Flevoland was named after ancient Flevo
Lake, which was named after Caius Julius Flevo, a Roman
who explored and wrote about the area?)

Another view, driving up, you can see the tiny island mass
rising above the sea (now grass)

Entrance

Approaching the entrance to the tee-niny museum

Netherlands is flat partly because it is the estuary of the Rhine
and associated great rivers; and partly because the glaciers
from Scandinavia scoured the land; these are glacial erratics
from Norway

Thus; amazing the things you find when "reclaiming" land

View of the museum; the church, a few house-structures, the
restaurant, the reception...

Coastal artillery...the coast now way out of range

Ditto

Remnants from the old cemetery

Important previous flood levels...it was the 1916 flood that
provided the impetus for the Zuider Zee Works; also the fact
that technology was now up to the task

Shipwrecks, other archaeological sites in the immediate vicinity
of Schokland

Start of the excellent video on Schokland and the Zuider Zee
(and in English, too)