A dike is a construction built along the edge of a body of water to prevent it from flooding onto an adjacent lowland. Dikes can be permanent earthworks[?] or emergency buildings (often of sandbags) built hastily in a flood emergency. The North Sea Reclamation Works[?] in the Netherlands are an immense series of dikes built to reclaim the area from the sea. This dike sytem goes further to the east and north via nearly the whole german coast up to Esbjerg in Denmark. The estuaries of the flatland rivers Rhine, Elbe, Ems, Weser and Eider are also protected from storm tides by dikes, which can be more than 9 m high.
The city of Richmond, British Columbia in Canada is an island of 129.666 km2, which is encircled by a dike system.
In Greek mythology, Dike ("justice") was the goddess of moral justice. Her mother was Themis; her father was Zeus. She ruled over human justice; her mother ruled over divine justice.
Dike was born a mortal and Zeus placed her on earth to keep mankind just. He quickly learned this was impossible and placed her next to him on Mt. Olympus.
She was part of the second generation of Horae.
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