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The Netherlands faces the North Sea in western Europe. The Dutch have a saying: God made the Earth, but the Dutch made Holland. The first defenses against the sea went up some 800 years ago. Today more than 2,400 kilometers (1,491 miles) of dikes shield the low, flat land—almost half of which lies below sea level—from invasion by the North Sea. Without the existing dikes 65 percent of the country would be flooded daily. Reclamation of the Zuider Zee has created 165,000 hectares (407,700 acres) of arable land—a precious commodity in this densely populated nation. About 60 percent of the country is farmed, with super-efficiency, by just 2 percent of the workforce. Only the U.S. and France export more agricultural goods. Located at the mouth of the Rhine River, the Netherlands is a gateway to northwestern Europe and participates in the European common currency, the euro. Rotterdam, the world's largest and busiest general-cargo port, includes Europoort, a petroleum-refining center.