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Characteristics of the four nations SCOTLANDENGLANDWALESNorthern Ireland Currency Pound Sterling Capital EdinburghLondonCardiffBelfast People The Scots The English The Welsh The Irish or Ulster Men Language English, Scots,Scots Gaelic English English and Welsh English, Irish Gaelic SymbolThistleRed RoseDaffodilShamrock Patron Saint St. Andrew (Novembe r 30th) St. George (April 23rd) St. David (March 1st) St. Patrick (March 17th)

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It was founded at the end of 1066 as a part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078, and was a resented symbol of oppression, of the new ruling elite. The castle was used as a prison since at least 1100, although that was not its primary purpose. A grand palace early in its history served as a royal residence. As a whole, the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls. There were several phases of expansion, mainly under Kings Richard the Lionheart, Henry III, and Edward I in the 12th and 13th centuries. ENGLAND

TOWER OF LONDON

BIG BEN Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, and is generally extended to refer to the clock or the clock tower (officially known simply as Clock Tower) as well. The clock tower holds the largest four-faced clock in the world and is the third-tallest free-standing clock tower.I t celebrated its 150th anniversary on 31 May 2009, during which celebratory events took place.The tower was completed in 1858 and has become one of the most prominent symbols of both London and England.

Canterbury is a town in Kent with a population of about 120,000. It is the religious capital of England because its cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury who is head of the Church of England. From the 12th to the 15th centuries, it was a place of pilgrimages. Thousands of people came to pray at the shrine of a former Archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered in the Cathedral in His name was Thomas Becket.

Canterbury

Hyde Park is a London Royal Park which Henry VIII acquired in 1536 (it had been owned by the monks of Westminster Abbey before that). A large area of open space in the city centre of 630 acres. It has the memorials at Marble Arch at the east side and Kensington palace at the west. One of the most famous is the Albert Memorial, Queen Victoria's monument to her husband. The Serpentine Lake is popular for boating, sailing and even bathing. To the south of the Serpentine runs Rotten Row, the fashionable riding track through the park.

SCOTLAND The Edinburgh Festival is a term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August. Though the festivals are put on by various organizations unrelated to each other, and so are officially separate events, they are regarded by many visitors as parts of the same event; and together they form the largest annual cultural festival in the world. The original, and still the largest, component festivals are the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; the latter is larger than any other similar event in the world.

Highlands The Highlands are an historic region of Scotland. The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis (1343 m). Before the 19th century the Highlands was home to a much larger population, but due to a combination of factors including the outlawing of the traditional Highland way of life following the Jacobite Rising of 1745, the infamous Highland Clearances, and mass migration to urban areas during the Industrial Revolution, the area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. The average population density in the Highlands and Islands is lower than that of Sweden, Norway, Papua New Guinea and Argentina.

WALES Tintern Abbey (Welsh: Abaty Tyndyrn) was founded by Walter de Clare, Lord of Chepstow, on 9 May It is situated in the village of Tintern, on the Welsh bank of the River Wye in Monmouthshire, which forms the border between Monmouthshire in Wales and Gloucestershire in England. It was only the second Cistercian foundation in Britain, and the first in Wales. It inspired William Wordsworth's poem Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem Tears, Idle Tears

Tintern Abbey

Caernarfon Castle Caernarfon Castle (Welsh: Castell Caernarfon) is a medieval building in Gwynedd, north- west Wales. There was a motte-and-bailey castle in the town of Caernarfon from the late 11th century until 1283 when King Edward I of England began replacing it with the current stone structure. The Edwardian town and castle acted as the administrative centre of north Wales and as a result the defences were built on a grand scale. There was a deliberate link with Caernarfon's Roman past – nearby is the Roman fort of Segontium – and the castle's walls are reminiscent of the Walls of Constantinople.

Northern Ireland Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the fourteenth largest city in the United Kingdom and second largest on the island of Ireland. Historically, Belfast has been a centre for the Irish linen industry (earning the nickname "Linenopolis"), tobacco production, rope-making and shipbuilding. Today, Belfast remains a centre for industry, as well as the arts, higher education and business, a legal centre, and is the economic engine of Northern Ireland.

Belfast