England

England is predominantly a lowland with a population about 60,776,238 ( July 2007, est). The capital is London, which is the largest city in Europe. England is divided into three parts: the South, the Midlands and the North.

Full size of England map

The South

It is warmer in the South compared with other areas of England. There are beaches of various types, flats, sandy, and stony; so, many coastal holidays resorts are built there. Brighton is a seaside place notable for tourism. The Continent is not very far from here, just across the English Channel. Transport between Britain and the Continent is either by air, the Channel tunnel or by ferry across the Channel or the North Sea. The main industries are engineering, food manufacturing, import – export and distributive trades. Generally, the South is wealthier and life there is more expensive than other areas in Britain. If you are in the South, you can see the following places of interests:

Stonehenge: the remains of the prehistoric era. It is a mystical circle of stones on Salisbury Plain. It is famous because of its sense of mystery with a lot of different theories. Up till now, although equipped with modern methods of investigation, we do not know exactly how Stonehenge was built and  its purpose. Geologists believe that stones came far away Wales. How did people at that time manage to move them? Some think that it was a place where people could observe planets and stars, and that the position of the stones are associated with the movement of the sun and the moon. Therefore, Stonehenge severved as a calendar. Who built Stonehenge is still unknown. People just guess that it is related to a group of Celtic religious people called the Druids who had ceremonies there every year.

Canterbury: a historic city in Kent, surrounded by a wall. The city is famous for its ancient cathedral built from the 11th to 15th centuries. The bishop of Canterbury is also the head of the Church of England and is called the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Eton (College): one of the oldest and the most famous public schools on the River Thames. It was founded in 1440. The school is for boys only, usually from upper-class families. The school takes pride in its long-established tradition. Many Prime Ministers  of Britain and other well-known figures were educated there.

Oxford and Cambridge: the two oldest university towns in Britain.

Windsor: a town well known for Windsor Castle, an official residence of the sovereign. It was built in the 11th century by William the Conqueror. Nowadays, when the sovereign is not in residence, part of this famous royal palace is open to the public.

The Midlands

It is wetter and cooler in the Midlands than in the South. This is an industrial area where the Industrial Revolution began. Britain’s second largest city is Birmingham in the Midlands. The city and the surrounding area used to be a major engineering center producing lots of iron and steel goods. The Potteries, famous for china. Derby Nottingham and Leicester are other industrial areas in Midlands Grimsby is small but considered one of the most important fishing ports. Stratford-upon-Avon in the county of Warwickshire and Shakespeare’s birthplace, is a tourist attraction. Here, there is the Festival Theater where the Royal Shakespeare Company plays Shakespeare.

The North

The North is colder with snowy winters. The landscapes is rather distinctive with lots of grass-covered land called moors. Manchester is a big city once known for making textiles, cotton goods, and for engineering. Coal is abundant here. The Roman Hadrian’s Wall was built in the second century along the Scottish border from Solway Firth to the River Tyne to the Scots out of England. It took six years to complete this 120-kilometer-long wall. York, a place related to the Roman, is in the North. Among the remains are the city walls and medieval buildings, which are very impressive. The Lake District, a place of lakes and mountains, is well known for its romantic and beautiful scenery. This is where William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey, three famous  poets of Britain, lived and wrote poems. They are known as Lake Poets who formed the Lake School. The Lake District is now a well protected national park which attracts lots of tourists and artists.