Zoetermeer (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌzutərˈmeːr] ⓘ) is a city in the Western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland.

[5] By 2023 this had grown to 126.998, making it the fourth largest population centre in the province of South Holland, after Rotterdam, The Hague and Leiden.

During the extraction of sand for the new housing estates, bones of mammoths, aurochs and saber-toothed tigers surfaced from great depths.

A reminder of this is the "Zoetermeerse Plas" in the Noord Aa recreation area at the northern edge of town; this artificial lake was created when tons of sand were needed to lay the foundation for new housing development, and the area north of Zoetermeer was a good source of this resource.

From then they started to build new quarters around the old village centre, so Zoetermeer began to grow and became a city in the meantime.

Zoetermeer is divided into 6 neighbourhoods (wijken),[10] which cover most of the municipality's territory, with the remainder being the commercial area in the east and the mostly green and undeveloped Buitengebied in the west.

The construction of a new centre of Zoetermeer actually started only in 1981, to serve as a shopping and administrative heart of the city.

It followed modern urban planning principles, placing parking garages, some storage facilities and a RandstadRail station on the ground level, which is covered by pedestrian- and bicycle-only area with shops on the lower floors and apartments above them, to ensure the centre does not die out outside of the business hours.

The Stadscentrum includes the modern town hall of Zoetermeer and the local police station.

Noordhove (postcode 2728) is located between Seghwaert to the south and the artificial lake known as 'Zoetermeerse Plas' to the north.

The Mandelabrug (Nelson Mandela bridge) was built over the latter for the Floriade (replacing an earlier smaller bridge, deemed insufficient for the increased traffic) as a covered bicycle and pedestrian passage over the railway, motorway and the RandstadRail, which adjoins it at this point from the North.

Next to the Mandelabrug runs a road crossing - a bridge between Afrikaweg on the northern side and Zuidweg in Rokkeveen.

The other crossing are the road, pedestrian and bicycle tunnels between Tweede and Eerste Stationsstraat next to Zoetermeer-Oost train station, connecting Rokkeveen-Oost with Dorp.

Rokkeveen-West (postcode 2719) mainly encompasses newer development on the grounds of the former Floriade-park, which includes both residential and office buildings.

The wijkposten employ personnel to deal with housing issues and provide space for local police officers.

Buytenwegh de Leyens, Meerzicht, Oosterheem and Rokkeveen have a wijkpost each, while Noordhove and Seghwaert share a common station and Wijkpost Center serves Dorp, Driemanspolder, Palenstein and Stadscentrum, which are for some purposes also lumped together as "Zoetermeer Centrum".

Driemanspolder (postcode 2713) was the first area to be developed as part of modern Zoetermeer, and contains mostly large multi-apartment buildings characteristic of the era.

It is next to the A12 motorway, which forms the southern border of the wijk, and directly north of the Zoetermeer railway station (which is on the other side of A12).

A rejuvenation project was started in Palenstein in 2006, providing for the renovation of some and demolition of other older buildings.

Seghwaert was formed around what was the former village of Zegwaart (or Zegwaard), which fused with Zoetermeer in 1935, using the archaic spelling of the locale's name.

With modern infrastructure, a highly digitised centre called 'het Forum' that houses city hall, the central library and numerous other organisations, and many schools that offer IT-related education, it also is a major software development centre, with many software developers based here.

The local government designates a comparatively large part of the budget to computers for schools.

The new light rail system is part of the RandstadRail network between The Hague, Rotterdam and Zoetermeer.

The HSL-Zuid high speed line from Amsterdam to Paris passes Zoetermeer on its eastern side.

Zoetermeer is the only place in the Netherlands with a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It is used as a training centre for the KNSB, the Dutch Olympic and world championship ice skaters.