Say the word “windmill” and most people immediately envision tulips and wooden shoes. Although windmills have come to symbolize the Netherlands, they can actually be found throughout the world. Windmills have been around in one form or another since the 7th century, when they were used in Persia for irrigation and milling grain. It was the Dutch, though, who seemed to love them most: by the 19th century, they had nearly 10,000 windmills spinning! Their immense popularity in the Netherlands stemmed from the fact that the farmers could use one problem to solve another. Because about half of Holland lies below sea level, people always needed to drain their waterlogged soil. These molen enabled them to take advantage of their unrelenting wind and use it to pump away the water. Today, over 1000 traditional Dutch windmills are still standing as distinctive silhouettes on the landscape.