The people of the Netherlands have been engaged with the sea for these two millennia. In the uncertain balance of this state of dependence, love and fear, the defenses against the violent sea have always been known. Between the sea and man have stood two barriers, the one natural, the other its human surrogate: dun and dike. It is the grassy dune, backdrop to sand castles, ice cream carts, the splashing bathers, this most benign of features, which provides the defense of the country. Where there are no natural dunes, as in a stretch of North Holland, then Dutchmen have built as replacement their three lines of dikes: The first of these, facing the sea is the Guardian (Waker), the second the Sleeper (Slaper), and the last defense is the Dreammer (Dromer). These are great efforts indeed to replicate the role of a simple dune. The entire panoply of organization that is the Waterstaat, empowered to defend Holland from the sea, its polders and pumps, locks and harbors, windmills and dikes, are all built upon the single basic foundation that is nature’s gift, the dune.