Kinderdijk mills before sunrise with high clouds by Rob Saly

Kinderdijk is a village in the Dutch province of South Holland, located in the Alblasserwaard. The village is part of the municipality of Molenlanden. Kinderdijk is located where the rivers Noord and Lek meet. The place is mainly known for the Kinderdijk windmills. The main activity is shipbuilding. History: Kinderdijk was protected from the water by two administrations, the Overwaard (on the east side of the Middelkade) and the Nederwaard (on the west side of the Middelkade). The Nederwaard built eight mills, stone ground-sailers, in 1738. The second mill is open to the public. The Overwaard also built eight mills in 1740, these were octagonal ground sailors. Kinderdijk was, in 1886, the first Dutch place with an electricity supply. Electricity was generated in Kinderdijk by the Netherlands' first power station, designed and built by Willem Benjamin Smit, also one of the founders of Elektrisch-Licht-Machinen Fabriek Willem Smit & Co. Windmills: The windmills of Kinderdijk have been on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1997. The 19 windmills are divided into a row of eight mills on the Nederwaard (these are the round stone mills), a row of eight thatched octagonal mills on the Overwaard, with a seesaw mill next to it; the Blokweerse molen[2] which drains the Blokweer polder and, in the Nieuw-Lekkerland polder, two thatched octagonal mills.