Almere (lake)

Former lake of the Netherlands

Almere

The lake Almere ca 800 AD.

Almere

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Almere

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Location| Netherlands
Coordinates| 52°35′26″N 5°26′50″E﻿ / ﻿52.59056°N 5.44722°E﻿ / 52.59056; 5.44722
Type| former lake

Lake Almere was an inland lake in the place of today's IJsselmeer in the center of the Netherlands.

## History[edit]

The texts of ancient Romans called it Lake Flevo.[citation needed] Lake Almere is mentioned among others in a life of saints written by Anglo-Saxon Bishop Saint Boniface in 753, and a deed of gift from the town of Urk.[citation needed]

Its etymology may be eels, in Dutch aal or ael, so: ael mere = "eel lake"[citation needed]

Presumably, the water of Lake Almere at that time was fresh water or slightly brackish.[citation needed]

A number of occurrences during the Middle Ages led to the transformation of the lake to an inland sea that would be called the Zuiderzee, which are:

* rising sea levels due to global warming known as the Medieval Warm Period.
* excavation of peat by the Frisians in West Friesland near the Vlie, a river that connected lake Almere to the North Sea.
* floods such as the All Saints' Flood (1170) and St. Lucia's flood 1287.

## The name[edit]

The name of the new town of Almere in Flevoland was given in 1984 in memory of this body of water.

## See also[edit]

* Lake Flevo
* Zuiderzee
* IJsselmeer

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