The Alblasserwaard polder sits at the confluence of the Lek and Noord rivers, in land that water perpetually seeks to reclaim. By the thirteenth century, the Dutch were already digging great canals called weteringen to drain excess water from the polders. But as they drained the land, the soil compacted and sank, while the rivers rose with accumulated sediment. It was a losing battle that demanded an ingenious solution. The answer came in the form of windmills, dozens of them, each capable of lifting water from the sinking farmland into reservoirs that could be emptied into the rivers when the tide was right. The system worked for centuries, the mills pumping in stages to overcome the growing height difference between land and water.

The eight brick mills of the Nederwaard were built in 1738, the eight wooden octagonal mills of the Overwaard two years later in 1740. Each row served a different purpose: the Nederwaard mills drained the lower polders, pumping water into an intermediate reservoir, while the Overwaard handled the higher ground. The system was a masterpiece of hydraulic engineering, with locks releasing the collected water into the Lek River during low tide. A nineteenth mill, De Blokker, dates to 1630 and belongs to the neighboring municipality of Alblasserdam. For generations, miller families lived inside these structures, their lives governed by the wind and the endless need to move water upward, against gravity, against nature.

By the nineteenth century, sinking land and rising water levels demanded more pumping capacity than wind could provide. Steam-powered stations were built, and by the 1920s, one had been electrified while another ran on diesel. The brick Nederwaard windmills were decommissioned, though the miller families were permitted to remain in their homes. When the Overwaard water board proposed demolishing their eight octagonal mills, public outcry reached the level of national politics. Even then, the Dutch recognized what they would be losing. World War II brought a brief reprieve when fuel shortages forced the water boards back to wind power, the last time these mills performed their original function. After the war, all mills were decommissioned and the millers released from their contracts.

Today, the Kinderdijk windmills are preserved in working order, their sails turning more for memory than necessity. Two modern electric pumping stations handle the actual water management now. The site became a protected village view in 1993 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, officially designated as the Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout. Visitors arrive by the hundreds of thousands each year, walking the paths between the mills, cycling the dikes, taking boat tours along the canals. Several mills have been converted into museums where you can climb inside and see the massive wooden gears and the cramped quarters where families once lived. The first museum mill, now called Museum Mill Nederwaard, opened in the 1950s, pioneering heritage tourism decades before the UNESCO designation.