THE LAND OF LILLIPUT
In the book Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver visits
Lilliput, a land of tiny people. Gulliver is an ordinarysized man. But
to the Lilliputians, he looks like a giant!
You can imagine how Gulliver felt if you visit Madurodam, a miniature
city in The Hague in the Netherlands. Everything in Madurodam is
twenty-five times smaller than real life. You can reach down to touch
ships in the harbor or reach up to cover a lighthouse beacon with your
hand. You can leap across canals and race express trains through the
countryside.
Cars hum below you as you walk beside modern highways. You tower over
cows and windmills. If you put your ear to the church or the opera
house, you hear music. At night, the little city quiets down. Then
lights go on in the houses and on the streets. At the airport, tower
lights sweep the sky.
There’s a bronze plaque at the entrance to Madurodam. It shows George
Maduro, a hero of the Netherlands who died in World War II. Maduro’s
parents built the miniature city in his memory—a place to be enjoyed
by all, but especially bv children.
