 Ä²'sselmeer' (; lake ijssel, alternative spelling: lake yssel; frisian: iselmar) is a shallow artificial lake of 1100&nbsp;kmÂ² in the central netherlands bordering the provinces of flevoland, north holland and friesland, with an average depth of 5 to 6 m. the Ä²sselmeer is the largest lake in western europe.dams in the netherlands  the Ä²sselmeer is a freshwater lake fed through the ketelmeer by the river ijssel, which gives it its name. it is mainly fed by water from the rhine since the ijssel is a branch of it. the first two letters of the name are capitalized because ij is a digraph in dutch, possibly a ligature, so it is treated as a single letter for most purposes (see ij (digraph)). the Ä²sselmeer was created in 1932 when an inland sea, the zuiderzee, was closed by a 32&nbsp;km dam, the afsluitdijk. this was part of a major hydraulic engineering project known as the zuiderzee works, that years later led to the reclaiming of land from the Ä²sselmeer, thereby diminishing the size of the lake. thumb|left|traditional boat on the Ä²sselmeer thumb|right|sunset over the Ä²sselmeer in 1975 the Ä²sselmeer was further split in two by the completion of the houtribdijk, now also called markerwaarddijk because it was originally designed to border the markerwaard; this dike runs from enkhuizen southeast to lelystad. this former southern part of the Ä²sselmeer is now the hydrologically separate markermeer. the Ä²sselmeer functions as a major fresh water reserve, serving as a source for agriculture and drinking water. it also offers a number of opportunities for recreational activities. the pro
Artificial_lakes Geography_of_Flevoland Geography_of_Friesland Geography_of_North_Holland Lakes_of_the_Netherlands Ramsar_sites_in_the_Netherlands Zuiderzee_Works