The Windmill in Amsterdam, Netherlands

I believed most of you are very familiar about windmills and its purposes. Visiting Netherlands without seeing any windmill seems like you did not visit it. Today, there are around 1000 mills left compared to 9000 in the past. These are the words I heard clearly from our tourist guide as we visited Amsterdam, Netherlands. These mills contributed to the history of this country until today.

One of the windmills we saw during our visit last summer 2010.

This Dutch windmill in Amsterdam was built in 1757 and is identified as De 1100 Roe. It is a smock mill of the type called by the Dutch a grondzeiler ("ground sailer"), since the sails almost reach the ground.

A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational motion by means of adjustable vanes called sails. The main use is for a grinding mill powered by the wind, reducing a solid or coarse substance into pulp or minute grains, by crushing, grinding, or pressing. Windmills have also provided energy to sawmills, paper mills, hammermills, and windpumps for obtaining fresh water from underground or for drainage (especially of land below sea level). wikipedia.