At the north end of the peninsula North-Holland is the harbour and city Den Helder. Its about 80 km from Amsterdam. With a ferry a you can reach from Den Helder the popular isle Texel in 20 minutes. Only here is a waterway from the Northsea to the Ijsselmeer. Ages ago Den Helder was with Hoorn, Enkhuizen and Amsterdam an important trading center of the Netherlands. Den Helder has about 44.000 inhabitants, more than seven kilometer beach, forest, dunes and shallow sea. Den Helder was founded about 1500 and was in the 18th century still a small fishing village. Napoleon Bonaporte made Den Helder 1811 to a fortress city and its known in the history books as "Gibraltar of the north".