The level is rising around the islands of silt in the swamp, the fishermen see their world widening Old streambeds are also filling up The wetlands become accessible by rivers from the mainland
It is a ******* void a gate to the sea, a chance for the peat farmers and the forest people to start trading, to build dikes, quays, a city with a dam in the middle
People are flowing over from the prosperous villages to the impoldered land with the new port – not an old core that hungrily conquers the surrounding lands but their colony
• AD 1100, the beginning of Amsterdam • Almere = Big Lake