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Why did Amsterdam’s first inhabitants build dikes and a dam?
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Amsterdam
Overview of Amsterdam.
Amsterdam’s first inhabitants built dikes and a dam primarily to protect their small 13th-century fishing settlement from flooding. These early residents constructed dikes on both sides of the Amstel River to manage water levels, and around 1270, they built a dam across the river to further control the flow and prevent inundation. The city’s name itself is derived from this original "Amstel dam".12