10 fun facts about Amsterdam's canals contiki.com

When we think of Amsterdam, we often visualise the coffee shops, the Red Light District and the tulip farms. However, there is SO much more culture in the Netherlands, one of those being the Amsterdam canals and how they came to be. Here are ten fun facts to impress your mates with.

Amsterdam in the Netherlands is known for its beautiful canals. In fact there are 165 canals in Amsterdam, which are connected by over 1,700 bridges (which is 1,300 more than Venice!). Amsterdam was entirely built on marshy, waterlogged land – picture Shrek’s swamp. The canals were actually dug to drain all the water into them, so the Dutch could use it as a mode of transport and to create drier land to build on. They built dykes to protect the area against the sea. “God created the world but the Dutch created the Netherlands” is a famous saying you may hear, because the Netherlands is such a low-lying country, but most of it was built by the clever methods of the Dutch people.