Gracht

Grachten often have a round shape, and form a circle around the city cores in the Netherlands, Belgium, and northern Germany.

Outside the Netherlands, the word grachten mostly refers to the city canals of Amsterdam (for which it is well known) and also Utrecht, Leiden and The Hague.

Since 2009 the Willemsvaart once more offers tours over this gracht, to Scheveningen, known as "StrandRelax" or "BeachRelax", a unique stretch of sand between The Hague and the sea.

In heavily populated cities, these combined functions repeatedly proved to be detrimental to the public health.

In the Netherlands, the northeastern cities of Deventer, Hindeloopen, Kampen, Leeuwarden, Meppel, Sneek, Zutphen and Zwolle are renowned for their historical grachten.

Other cities in the Netherlands, in the western part of the country, are also touristic attractions because of their grachten, especially Alkmaar, Amersfoort, Gouda, Hoorn, Leiden, Utrecht and Weesp.

The rural village around Oude and Nieuwe Delft developed into a more urban area and the canals gradually acquired the character of city-canals or grachten.

When it was still a Dutch colony, Cape Town had a network of grachten, that were fed by the springs at the base of Table Mountain.

In the ensuing centuries, the grachten were covered over, but many of the prominent streets in the modern city centre still bear their names (notably the Heerengracht, Keizersgracht, Buitengracht and Buitensingel).