Flevoland is a province of the Netherlands. Located in the centre of the country, at the location of the former Zuiderzee, the province was established on January 1, 1986; the twelfth province of the country. After a flood in 1916, it was decided that the Zuiderzee, an inland sea within the Netherlands, would be enclosed and reclaimed: the Zuiderzee Works started. In 1932, the Afsluitdijk was completed, which closed off the sea completely. The Zuiderzee was subsequently called IJsselmeer (lake at the end of the river IJssel).
The first part of the new lake that was reclaimed was the Noordoostpolder (Northeast polder). After this, other parts were reclaimed: the Southeastern part in 1957 and the Southwestern part (where I live and where most of the pictures taken below come from) in 1968.