The Wadden Islands
The Wadden Islands are located in the North Sea to the north of the Netherlands . The Wadden Islands have a total area of 1,047.5 km² and have approximately 81,340 inhabitants. The largest island is Texel , followed by Terschelling , Ameland , Schiermonnikoog and Vlieland . There are still a few small uninhabitable islands such as Rottumeroog and Rottumerplaat and many German and Danish Wadden Islands. The Wadden Sea lies between the Wadden Islands and the mainland, which largely dries up at low tide. This makes it a very important European foraging area for birds.
How did the Wadden Islands originate? During the coldest period at the end of the last Ice Age, about 18,000 years ago, the sea level was more than a hundred meters below the current sea level. At that time, the North Sea bed was largely dry. When the ice caps started to melt, the sea level rose and water ran into the North Seain. About 7,000 years ago, the coastline was near the current coast. Wave action and tidal movements displaced sand from the sea to the coast. This sand deposited along the coast and in the nearby hinterland, which consequently became higher and higher and did not disappear under the still rapidly rising sea level. Along large parts of the Dutch and Flemish coast and in the German Bight, tidal flats with tidal channels (tidal channels) and salt marshes were created. On the North Sea side, there were locally sandy beach walls. The sea level rise has slowed down and from about 5,000 years ago, the first continuous beach walls in the western Netherlands could be preserved. Many tidal channels in the hinterland silted up and the former tidal flats and salt marshes became covered with a peat swamp. In the Northern Netherlands (east of Vlieland) the situation was different. Here, the beach walls were not contiguous, but they have always been interrupted by tidal channels that led to the underlying wadden and salt marsh area. These interrupted beach walls form the core of most of the Wadden islands. Dunes were formed on the islands themselves, blown up from the beach, and salt marshes formed on the south side. The Wadden Sea Region has always been dynamic over the past 7,000 years; tidal channels have regularly shifted, the boundaries of the Wadden and salt marsh area and the location of the Wadden Islands have also shifted regularly. Even today, the Wadden Islands are subject to constant build-up and destruction by the sea.
Long before the beginning of our era, people lived in the Wadden area. Until the 8th century AD, this occupation mainly took place on mounds and mounds. Construction of dikes started around the year 1000. But before that too, attempts had been made to conquer the sea. At Peins in Friesland (in the municipality of Franeker), a 40-meter-long stretch of dike has been discovered that probably dates from the 1st or 2nd century BC. In the late Middle Ages, the dikes took on more and more shape and flooding decreased. From the 17th century onwards, the dikes were increasingly pushed back by reclaimed land. The peak of this took place in the 19th and 20th centuries. The row of dunes south of the Wadden Sea was also subject to this process, but human intervention prevented the many storm surges from permanently changing the coast of the provinces of North and South Holland into separate islands with a Wadden plain behind them. Storm surges around 1200 did cause the northern coast of West Friesland to split into five islands. By 1600, the four along the west coast had already been reclaimed, but Wieringen, southeast of Texel, remained an island until the 20th century. Wieringen is therefore considered by some to be part of the Wadden Islands, but it actually has a different history: it is a lateral moraine from the Riss Ice Age. The four along the west coast had already been reclaimed around 1600, but Wieringen, southeast of Texel, remained an island until the 20th century. Wieringen is therefore considered by some to be part of the Wadden Islands, but it actually has a different history: it is a lateral moraine from the Riss Ice Age. The four along the west coast had already been reclaimed around 1600, but Wieringen, southeast of Texel, remained an island until the 20th century. Wieringen is therefore considered by some to be part of the Wadden Islands, but it actually has a different history: it is a lateral moraine from the Riss Ice Age.
