Five Brothers and a War

Geography—Rivers and Water

As a final note on the river system, there is another, less important, river: the Amstel. The prime notoriety of this river is that the name Amsterdam traces its name to the Amstel. Through various refinements of the name, the city went from Amestelledamme to Amstelredam to Aemsterdam and finally to Amsterdam . Apparently the name derives from dykes built along the river to protect the new town rather from the actual damming of the river, which occurred after the initial name was used to describe the community founded in 1220 AD.

holland

Five Brothers and a War

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