British Isles

The British Isles

The British Isles is a geographical term that refers to a number of isles. They are an archipelago of about 600 islands in the north of Europe.
In the British Isles there are 5 main countries: England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and EIRE as well as other smaller islands.
The main island is divided into three countries: England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The other island, that is IRELAND. Is divided into Northern Ireland (that takes part of the UK)
And the Southern Ireland (that forms a separate country from 1922), that is a republic of Ireland: EIRE (that is the Irish word for it).

Its capital is Dublin.
There are a lot of other islands in the British Islands, around the coast of Great Britain of example: the Isle of Wight that is in the south, and the Isle of Man that is in the north-west. There are hundreds of small islands in Scotland.
In THE UNITED KINGDOM: (or UK) there are 4 countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (or Ulster. Its capital is Belfast). The UK is a constitutional monarchy with a Queen and a Parliament.
The Queen is also the head of Commonwealth, an association of 42 independent states including Canada, India and New Zealand.
The population of the UK is about 58 million.
The official language is English.
The currency is the pound.
The people who live in Britain are the British.
GREAT BRITAIN is made up of 3 countries: England, Wales and Scotland.
The capital of England is London, the capital of Wales is Cardiff and the capital of Scotland is Edinburgh.
THE BRITISH FLAG is called the Union Jack because it’s 3 flags in one. The English, the Scottish and the Irish flag. It has 3 crosses: the red cross of St George for England, the white cross for St Andrew for Scotland. The red diagonal cross of St Patrick is for Ireland.
James II of Scotland, called Jack, became King of England in1603 and united the 2 countries under the same crown. In 1801 Ireland became part of the UK and the cross of St Patrick was added to the flag. There is no trace of the Welsh in the Union Jack.
The North Sea is in the East of England, and the English Channel is to the South. The Irish Sea is between Wales and Ireland and the Atlantic Ocean is to the North of England.
A tunnel called Eurotunnel, built under the water, join England to the Continent.
The closest European continents to Britain are France, Benelux.
There aren’t any high mountains in England, but there are a lot of holly; The Pennines and The Cotswold, for example.
The high mountains are in the Wales: The Cambrian Mountains and in Scotland: The Grampians and The Highlands. The highest mountain in Britain is Ben Nevis in Scotland. It is 1,343 meters.
Mount Snowdon in Wales is 1,085 meters high.
There are a lot of rivers in the British Islands: for example the Thames, the Severn and the Mersey in England; in Scotland the Clyde and the Tweed; in Wales the river Wye.
There are a lot of lakes in the north of Scotland, Loch Ness is very famous. The Lake District in the north-west of England is an area lakes and hills.