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Wales (Welsh: Cymru ⓘ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic Sea to the south-west. As of 2021, it had a population of 3.2 million. [2]
Explore Wales, a country with a warm heart, a rich history and an exciting future. Find places to stay, things to do, and things to see in four regions: North, South, Mid and West Wales.
BBC Wales is the nation's broadcaster. News, sport, television shows, radio programmes and digital content for Wales and beyond, from BBC Wales.
- Overview
- Land
- Relief
- Drainage
- Soils
Wales is a constituent unit of the United Kingdom that forms a westward extension of the island of Great Britain.
What kind of climate does Wales have?
Wales has a maritime climate with frequent precipitation; annual totals average 55 inches (1,385 mm). Winter snowfall can be significant in the uplands. The mean daily temperature is 50 °F (10 °C), ranging from 40 °F (4 °C) in January to 61 °F (16 °C) in July and August.
What languages are spoken in Wales?
Welsh and English are the primary languages spoken in Wales.
What is the name of Wales in Welsh?
Wales is bounded by the Dee estuary and Liverpool Bay to the north, the Irish Sea to the west, the Severn estuary and the Bristol Channel to the south, and England to the east. Anglesey (Môn), the largest island in England and Wales, lies off the northwestern coast and is linked to the mainland by road and rail bridges. The varied coastline of Wale...
Glaciers during the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago) carved much of the Welsh landscape into deeply dissected mountains, plateaus, and hills, including the north-south–trending Cambrian Mountains, a region of plateaus and hills that are themselves fragmented by rivers. Protruding from that backbone are two main mountain areas—the Brecon Beacons in the south, rising to 2,906 feet (886 metres) at Pen y Fan, and Snowdonia in the northwest, reaching 3,560 feet (1,085 metres) at Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. Snowdonia’s magnificent scenery is accentuated by stark and rugged rock formations, many of volcanic origin, whereas the Beacons generally have softer outlines. The uplands are girdled on the seaward side by a series of steep-sided coastal plateaus ranging in elevation from about 100 to 700 feet (30 to 210 metres). Many of them have been pounded by the sea into spectacular steplike cliffs. Other plateaus give way to coastal flats that are estuarine in origin.
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Wales consists of six traditional regions—the rugged central heartland, the North Wales lowlands and Isle of Anglesey county, the Cardigan coast (Ceredigion county), the southwestern lowlands, industrial South Wales, and the Welsh borderland. The heartland, which coincides partly with the counties Powys, Denbighshire, and Gwynedd, extends from the Brecon Beacons in the south to Snowdonia in the north and includes the two national parks based on those mountain areas. To the north and northwest lie the coastal lowlands, together with the Lleyn Peninsula (Penrhyn Llŷn) in Gwynedd and the island of Anglesey. To the west of the heartland, and coinciding with the county of Ceredigion, lies the coastline of Cardigan Bay, with numerous cliffs and coves and pebble- and sand-filled beaches. Southwest of the heartland are the counties of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. There the land rises eastward from St. David’s Head, through moorlands and uplands, to 1,760 feet (536 metres) in the Preseli Hills. South Wales stretches south of the heartland on an immense but largely exhausted coalfield. To the east of the heartland, the Welsh border region with England is largely agricultural and is characterized by rolling countryside and occasional wooded hills and mountainous moorland.
The main watershed of Wales runs approximately north-south along the central highlands. The larger river valleys all originate there and broaden westward near the sea or eastward as they merge into lowland plains along the English border. The Severn and Wye, two of Britain’s longest rivers, lie partly within central and eastern Wales and drain into...
The parent rock of Wales is dominated by strata ranging from Precambrian time (more than 540 million years ago) to representatives of the Jurassic Period (about 200 million to 145 million years ago). However, glaciers during the Pleistocene blanketed most of the landscape with till (boulder clay), scraped up and carried along by the underside of th...
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Explore Wales' natural drama, history, culture and food with a variety of activities and attractions. Find out how to enjoy mindfulness, wellness, adventure, museums, concerts and more in Wales.
Things to Do in Wales, United Kingdom: See Tripadvisor's 2,738,690 traveller reviews and photos of Wales tourist attractions. Find what to do today, this weekend or in October. We have reviews of the best places to see in Wales. Visit top-rated & must-see attractions.
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