Walking Towards Fort Edam
We were done exploring a full fledged windmill and it was time for us to go. We were supposed to meet up with our friend in Amsterdam but before that I was looking at the map and found out that we were quite near a town called Edam. The name actually rings a bell with me since I have come to associate the name Edam with cheese. True enough, this is where it comes from. The country has a few famous cheeses and edam is one of them. We weren’t going there to look for cheese thought my friend suggest that we do, we were here to have a look at a fort.
Gates of Fort Edam
Fort Edam is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site listing under the name Stelling van Amsterdam. It turns out that the the whole network of canals and polders around Amsterdam was part of a masterplan to defend the city from invaders. Back then, enemies would all come from land and to get to Amsterdam, an enemy would have to pass through the polders which have been built over the years. Keep in mind that the polders used to be underwater. A defense of Amsterdam would involves releasing water back into the polders to hinder land based invaders. It was an ingenious way of making use of what they already have an defending the city.
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