Water Cities

Water Cities

Living Near Water Each year, millions of people from around the world travel to Venice, Italy. This famous city of canals and bridges was built on more than a hundred islands. Venice is the world's best-known water city, but it is certainly not the only one. Water cities are places that are built on or near a body of water. Some water cities are tiny, while others are huge. They are found near-or in-water on every continent except Antarctica. They exist for many different reasons, and each one has an interesting story to tell.

Europe Amsterdam, Netherlands Amsterdam is another European city that is famous for its canals. It is the capital and largest city in the Netherlands. About one- third of the Netherlands is below sea level, and one-sixth is built on reclaimed land-land that was once underwater. The city of Amsterdam is about 2 meters (6. 6 ft. ) below sea level. The water was pumped out so people could build there. Pumping stations keep the land dry. Amsterdam was surrounded by a moat in the 1500s. More people moved there in the 1600s as the city grew. Workers drained swamps and built three new canals around the downtown area.

Since that time, 161 other canals have been built. Amsterdam's canals total over 100 kilometers (62 mi. ) in length. They divide the city into almost 100 small islands joined by over 1, 200 bridges. The canals were the city's main transportation routes for centuries. Now they are mainly used by smaller boats. However, they are still an important part of Amsterdam's character.

Asia Singapore Singapore is the world's only island city-state-an island that is both a city and an independent country. It is made up of about sixty-three islands. Singapore depends on goods from other places since it has few natural resources of its own. Singapore is much larger than it was before the 1960s. Like Amsterdam, it has grown by reclaiming land that was once underwater. However, instead of pumping out the water, Singapore has added land by dumping rocks and sand into the sea. A project begun in 2016 will use Amsterdam's methods to increase its land area.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates Dubai is a modern city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). One of its largest building projects is Palm Islands-three human-made islands shaped like palm trees. The islands are being built along the coast by piling up huge amounts of sand and rock. They are adding hundreds of miles of coastline to the city as well as thousands of homes. Construction began in 2001. The first island was finished in late 2016.