The Netherlands, flat? No way! Underground, even Amsterdam is hilly. The Bos Atlas of the Subterranean Netherlands shows what can be found underground, and what is happening there.

The abovementioned atlas is only the most recent in a whole series of school atlases. Whole generations of Dutch schoolchildren have started their secondary school education with the Bos atlas, specifically created for educational purposes by schoolteacher and geographer Pieter Roelof Bos in 1877.

Many adults still have their high school Bos atlases in their bookcases, and the phrase Bos atlas has even been entered in the Van Dale, the standard dictionary of the Dutch language.

 
Groundwater, natural gas, clay, peat, terrestrial heat, old convents and crypts, toxins, many, many pipes and cables. A whole world opens up before you when you go underground. Excavations are taking place all across the Netherlands, and tens of thousands of soil drillings have been carried out. The data resulting from all this activity have been collected and used for the Bos atlas of the subterranean Netherlands, which is intended for children in secondary education and others who are interested.

The publication of the atlas has been paid for by a variety of organisations and government bodies with a 'stake' in the Dutch soil, varying from gas production and tunnel building to archaeological research and water collection.  

Archaeology
Jerzy Gawronski, city archaeologist of Amsterdam, has been presented with the first copy of the new atlas. His organisation is one of those which have contributed to the new Bos atlas. "This is a map of the mediaeval centre of Amsterdam on which all archaeological sites have been marked”, he says. He points at the sector inside the ring of canals which includes the red-light district.

"In the Middle Ages, this area was home to the city’s monasteries and convents. Underground, you will find the remains of houses and cesspools, on top of which new houses were built. This is what we call the 'book of the earth', which we use to unravel history”.

The new Bos atlas includes various maps of the capital, which show the locations of sewage systems and underground water reservoirs, but also underground car parks and metro lines.

 
"Each chapter deals with one aspect of the subterranean city. This Bos atlas helps you unravel the soil, allowing you to link various aspects together”, Gawronski says.

 
Gas fields
Most of the new atlas is about the Netherlands as a whole. It shows that most of the gas fields are located in the northern province of Groningen, how they are covered by layers of salt, that minor earthquakes occur in the region and even what the expectations are for a possible subsidence or elevation of the soil. You can immediately tell the one is linked to the other.

 
Sand
The present shape of the Dutch soil is the result of many centuries of geological development. In addition to salt layers, there are also layers of clay, peat and 175 different kinds of sand. You can tell that the sand on the beach at Katwijk has bigger grains of sand in a wider variety of colours compared to the sandbanks off the northern island of Terschelling.

Inspiration
Children in secondary education can use the new atlas for projects. Standing in a building excavation deep below street level in Amsterdam, engineer Frans Taselaar says: “We want to get the story of the soil across”. Mr Taselaar is a member of the van de Stichting Amsterdam Ondergronds, (Amsterdam Underground Foundation) one of the initiators of the Bos atlas of the subterranean Netherlands. "So much can be accomplished with this soil if we use it wisely. We hope students will be inspired by it”.

* The Bos Atlas of the Subterranean Netherlands is only available in Dutch. For those interested:

Publisher: Noordhoff Uitgevers
ISBN 978 9001 12245 4
Cover price: €24.95

RNW translation (gsh)