It covers an area of 242 429 sq km and the population is 58 295 119 inhabitants. The capital city is London (6 904 600) and the main ethnic groups are: English (80 %), Scottish (10 %), Irish (4 %) and Welsh (2 %). The Great Britain currency is One Great Britain pound sterling (1 GBP), which is 100 pences.
Geography
The British Isles are two large islands - Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) and Ireland (the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland) and lie between North Sea and Atlantic Ocean. There are more than 5 000 smaller islands too (e.g. Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, the Shetlands or the Channel Islands).
Great Britain can be divided into two main regions. The highland Britain is the mountainous part and there are e.g. the Highlands of Scotland (Ben Nevis 1 342 m), the Pennines,the Cambrian Mountains or the Cheviots Hills. The lowland Britain are plains hardly ever reaching 1 300 m above sea level.
British rivers are not very long but they are quite deep because of frequent rainfalls. The biggest are the Thames (336 km), the Severn (354 km) and the Trent, which are navigable for ocean-going ships from the sea and for small vessels too. The lakes are to be found in the Lake District in England and in the Highlands of Scotland (called „lochs“). The biggest are Lake Windermere, Lake Derwentwater and Loch Ness. The biggest cities are London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh etc.
Climate
Great Britain has a mild, humid climate. There are mild winters, not very hot summers and no extremes of temperature, but frequent changes of the weather. Rain is fairly common 2 throughout the year. It is because of south-west wind blowing from the Atlantic and the Gulf Stream.
Places of interest
There are many interesting places in UK besides its capital London. One of the most popular tourist attraction is Stratfort-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. The top attraction is the house in Henley Street where Shakespeare was born. In the Holy Trinity Church we can see the Shakespeare’s grave.
Very spectacular 3 place is Stonehenge, where is the very old prehistoric megalithic monuments dating about 3 000 BC. The ruins stand in the centre of a huge circle 98 m in diameter. The ruins consist of two stone circles and a horseshoes. The purpose of these is unknown but it may be ritual sanctuary 4 probably used like an astronomical ‘calendar’.
Quite similar ruins are near the Salisbury but there is also magnificent Cathedral of Saint Mary (13th century).
Interesting are Oxford and Cambridge which are well-known for one of the most prestige universities. The first of these was founded in 12th century and has 34 colleges now. The second one is from 13th century.
Canterbury is the seat of the Archbishop and there is a magnificent cathedral which oldest part is from 11th century. It is the place where the first convent on the British Isles was established by St.Augustine who convert England to Christianity. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury was murdered there in the cathedral in 1170 by order the king.
Winchester is the ancient Roman town with a majestic cathedral which oldest parts dates beck to the 7th century. It is the longest church in Europe and has 170 m.
Bath is worth seeing for the remains of the Roman bath built 2 000 years ago.
Hastings is near the battleplace where William the Conqueror defeated the Anglo-Saxons in 1066. Hadrian’s Wall is a remain of the Roman fortifications built between 122-26 AD to protect England against the Celtic’s invasion.
Whole the English countryside is full of peaceful harbour-towns with sandy beaches, fishing boats, yachts etc.
Scotland is interesting for its traditions - playing the pipes, wearing kilts made of tartan and for Scotch whisky (in Gaelic it is ‘uisge beatha’ - the water of life).
Economy
British was the first country in the world to become highly industrialised and it belongs to the G-7 countries. The main natural resources are: high quality coal 5 (Newcastle), petroleum and natural gas (North Sea), there are reserves of tin 6, clay 7 and limestone 8 too. In GB is mainly the steel, vehicles (ships and planes) and traditional textile industry. This country has well-developed agriculture system which is concentrated on cattle and sheep breeding 9 .
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