England

England covers about 130,279 square kilometres, occupying the southern and central part of Great Britain. It is bounded by the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the English Channel and shares land borders with Scotland and Wales. Terrain ranges from the uplands of the Lake District and the Pennines to the chalk downs of the south and the low-lying fens of East Anglia. England's highest point, Scafell Pike, reaches 978 metres in the Lake District. The River Thames runs entirely within England, flowing through Oxford and London to the North Sea and supporting a sequence of towns and ports along its course.

Urban and rural areas sit side by side across a network of roads, railways and navigable rivers. Cities such as London, Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle occupy river valleys and former industrial corridors. Roman-built remains at Bath and the course of Hadrian’s Wall record long-standing lines of settlement and defence. The Royal Observatory at Greenwich marks the Prime Meridian at 0° longitude, used for global timekeeping. Coastal features include the White Cliffs of Dover and wide estuaries such as the Humber, which shape ports and salt marsh habitats.