This method returns an associative array containing some 'major' timezones (like CEST), which on their own contain more specific 'geographic' timezones (like Europe/Amsterdam).
If you're using these timezones and their offset/DST information, it's extremely important to realize the following:
*It seems like ALL DIFFERENT OFFSET/DST CONFIGURATIONS (including historical configurations) of each timezone are included!*
For example, Europe/Amsterdam can be found six times in the output of this function. Two occurrences (offset 1172/4772) are for the Amsterdam time used until 1937; two (1200/4800) are for the time that was used between 1937 and 1940; and two (3600/4800) are for the time used since 1940.
*Therefore, YOU CANNOT RELY ON THE OFFSET/DST INFORMATION RETURNED BY THIS FUNCTION as being currently correct/in use!*
If you want to know the current offset/DST of a certain timezone, you'll have to do something like this:
<?php
$now = new DateTime(null, new DateTimeZone('Europe/Amsterdam'));
echo $now->getOffset();
?>
P.S. I'm sorry for my use of caps lock in this post, but as this behavior is not described in the documentation, I considered it to be important enough to shout. Normally I don't do such things :)