This map depicts a landscape entirely shaped by water management. It shows how Amstelland functioned as the agricultural hinterland of the capital, closely connected to Amsterdam yet clearly distinct in both administrative and landscape terms.
At its centre lies the River Amstel, which winds southward from Amsterdam through the peat meadow landscape and serves as the backbone of the region. Along its banks the urban elite maintained numerous country estates. Ouderkerk, Amstelveen, Nieuwer-Amstel, and Abcoude are embedded among polders, ditches, and canals. The map demonstrates how these villages developed almost exclusively along waterways, underscoring the crucial importance of transport by water.
The landscape is dominated by clearly defined polders, including the Buitenveldsepolder, Bovenkerkerpolder, Ouderkerkse Hoeppolder, and the Duivendrechter polders.
At the edges of Amstelland appear the Haarlemmermeer and the Bijlmermeer, which in the mid-eighteenth century were still open lakes and would not be drained until the nineteenth century.
