Amsterdam owes its name to its location near a dam built in the Amstel in the 13th century. The city is also called Mokum in Amsterdam, a nickname derived from Yiddish. Amsterdam has also been known for several centuries as the 'Venice of the North', a comparison that is due to the many canals and historic buildings that determine the streetscape of the old center.

Amsterdam is located in the province of North Holland, in the west of the Netherlands. It is located on the Amstel and the IJ. The port of Amsterdam is connected to the North Sea via the North Sea Canal. The watery city has many canals, the city center is divided into approximately 90 'islands'. There are 31 numbered locks. Of the 1,943 numbered bridges and viaducts in the municipality, 252 are in the city center. Of these, 902 have a name.[11][12] The city center is located approximately one meter above sea level and, like the surrounding area, has a very flat (polder) landscape, which in some cases, such as the Haarlemmermeer, Watergraafsmeer and the Beemster, was created by the reclamation of former lakes.

Around the year 1000, the swampy area, then called Aemestelle, was mined from the Utrecht region. Drainage ditches were dug on either side of various existing peat streams and a farming community of land reclaimers emerged, as elsewhere in the peat area between the Gooi and the Dutch dunes. When the peat started to collapse due to drainage, dikes had to be constructed to protect the now lower-lying land against the water.