Alkmaar

The landscape around Alkmaar is a flat expanse of low-lying polders and reclaimed land, which has shaped both its canal-lined urban form and its historic agricultural trade. The city lies beside the Noordhollandsch Kanaal, a 19th-century waterway linking Amsterdam with Den Helder, while older canals thread through its compact centre. Alkmaar is internationally associated with its traditional cheese market on Waagplein, where cheese carriers in white costumes and coloured straw hats continue a long-established local ritual. The former Waag, or weighing house, anchors the square and recalls the town’s role in the regional cheese trade. Discover further places of interest through webcams across North Holland.

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