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Amsterdam was built on 11 million wooden poles, and because the ground under the water is swampy, some buildings are not as straight as they would be on land. They are lop-sided.
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The wooden poles are no longer used to build. They have replaced them with concrete in the construction process.
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Amsterdam is rich with historical buildings. There are 6,800 buildings in the city that were built in the 16th to 18th centuries.
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During World War II starvation threatened the people of Amsterdam to the point that they began to eat tulip bulbs to survive.
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There are more nationalities in Amsterdam (176) than in any other city in the world. It's very multicultural.
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Amsterdam was one of the original six founding European Union members.
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Amsterdam is home to the tallest people in the world on average.
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People use bicycles to get around Amsterdam much of the time. It is estimated that 60% of inner city transport is done on bikes.
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The crime rate in Amsterdam is low compared to many other major cities.
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Amsterdam is often referred to as the Venice of the North, because it has almost as many canals as Venice, Italy.
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Amsterdam has a total of 872 more bridges than Venice, Italy.
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Many people discard their old, worn out bicycles in the canals every year. Of the estimated 25,000 that end up in the water, only 8,000 are pulled from the bottom and discarded properly.
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Approximately 100,000 bikes are stolen each year in Amsterdam.
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There are approximately 2,500 houseboats or floating homes on the canals in Amsterdam where people live permanently.
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There are approximately 805,166 residents living in the city of Amsterdam, and 2.34 million living in Amsterdam's metropolitan area.
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Despite being built on the water, Amsterdam has trams, metro, buses, taxis, and cars traveling its roadways and tram and metro lines.
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Amsterdam has approximately 550 charging points for electric vehicles.
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Amsterdam has a total of 45 city parks.
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Amsterdam's Artis Zoo is home to more than 6,100 animals.
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Amsterdam is home to more than 50 museums, 141 art galleries, 61 cinemas, and more than 101 attractions including Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, the world's largest spring garden (Keukenhof), and the NEMO Science Center.
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One of the most famous museums in Amsterdam is the Anne Frank House. It is the house where Anne Frank, and her family, tried to hide from the Nazis in secret rooms during World War II.
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