(sometimes, but improperly, called Saardam), a town of Holland, province of North Holland, on the Y, at the mouth of the Zaan, which divides it into East and West Zaandam, 5 miles N.W. of Amsterdam. The town is particularly neat and clean, and the houses are mostly of wood, and painted white or green. It has an immense number of windmills, amounting, it is said, to about 700, including paper, corn, saw, coffee, snuff, oil, and other mills. Peter the Great of Russia wrought in the docks here as a ship-carpenter; and the hut in which he lived is still in good preservation and much visited. Ship-building is still carried on to some extent. Pop. about 12,000.