The Geographical and Cultural Elements of the United Kingdom - Essay Example

World Cultures Project Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts Inserts Here (Day, Month, Year) Introduction This paper attempts to explore the geographical and cultural elements of the United Kingdom that includes Northern Ireland and Great Britain. The most populous densities within the western world, the area covered by United Kingdom include the 89000 square miles of Great Britain as well as 5400 square miles within the Northern Ireland. Though this country is mainly located at the Labrador latitude within the western Atlantic, it climate is moderated via the Gulf Stream and thus avoids weather extremes. Except for the few areas of barren highland and bog, majority of the land is suited for agriculture and has been pastured or cropped since the Bronze Age. Location It is a sovereign state situated off the north-western coastline of the continental Europe. It occupies the most of the British Isles archipelago and comprises of the Great Britain, one sixth part of Ireland and various smaller islands surrounding it. The major land areas are located within the 49°north and 59°North latitude while 8°west to 2°east of longitudes. The defining point of Prime Meridian is the Royal Greenwich Observatory situated in South East London. The United Kingdom lies in between the North Sea and the North Atlantic, and gets along within 22 miles (35 km) of the French northwest coastline, from which it is distinguished along the English Channel. A boundary of land of around 360 km is shared by Ireland and United Kingdom. Below the English Channel, a Channel Tunnel has been bored linking France and UK. England comprises mainly of lowland terrain with mountainous terrain or highland only observed at the Tees-Exe line’s north-west. The highland areas comprise Dartmoor, the Lake District, Exmoor and the Pennines while the lowland regions are normally crossed by low hill ranges, often made up of chalk. Scotland’s physical geography is recognized by the Highland Boundary, a fault line that distinguishes the two quintessentially different areas of the highlands to the west and north, as well as the lowlands to the east and south. The part of UK constituting Wales is mainly mountainous varying throughout the region. The part of Ireland constituting United Kingdom comprises of the Lough Neagh, at 150 square miles (388 square kilometres), the largest water body in the Ireland and UK and the Mourne Mountains. Climate The climate is usually temperate in the United Kingdom, although substantial local fluctuation occurs, especially as a consequence of distance and altitude from the seashore. Normally the southern region of United Kingdom is warmer than its northern region, while the western region is more humid than the eastern region. Because of the Gulf Stream’s warming influence, the United Kingdom is considerably warmer than various other locations at the same latitude, like Newfoundland. There are hardly any regular hazards, though there can be floods and strong winds, particularly in winter. Average yearly rainfall deviates from over 1181.1 inches (3000 mm) in the Highlands of Scotland down to 21.8 inches (553 mm) in Cambridge. One of the driest regions in the United Kingdom is the county of Essex, with an average yearly rainfall of approximately (23.6 inches) 600 mm, though it generally rains on more than 100 days annually. Scotland possesses the ten of the UK’s tallest mountains while the UK’s lowest point is located within the Fens of East Anglia as few of its regions lie below sea level up to 4 metres (Hobbs, 2008). Culture Celtic peoples are considered to be the initial occupants of United Kingdom. Cultural diversity in the United Kingdom has been enhanced by the overseas and European immigrations as well as the movement inside the British. Various prehistoric cultural heritages like Stonehenge are all that persist of the initial inhabitants of United Kingdom. The various cultural heritages found in the United Kingdom are mostly located in England as 17 out of the UK’s world heritage sites are located there. Some of them include London Towers, Hadrians Wall, Avebury, Stonehenge, Jurassic Coast, Saltaire, Westminster, Studley Royal Park, Iron bridge Gorge, Stirling Castle and the Giants Causeway. Stonehenge is an antiquated memorial situated in the Wiltshire, almost 3.2 km (2.0 miles) to the west of Amesbury while 13km (8 miles) towards Salisbury’s north. It in one of the world’s renowned sites, located at the middle of the most crowded complex of Bronze Age and Neolithic memorials in England, together with numerous burial mounds. Being one of the world’s famous and renowned sites, it is a source of attracting tourists from all over the world, thus generating revenues for the economy. Moreover it is a site of great archaeological interest and archaeologists from all over the world had been investigating the monument since its discovery. It has been remained a mystery and various theories have been proposed regarding its construction. It is also a place of pilgrimage and religious importance in Neo-Druidry. UK’s Cultural Contributions The United Kingdom contributed on all cultural grounds to the whole world, whether its sports, music, cinema, art, literature, food, science and technology. At its inception, United Kingdom instantly transmitted the literary customs of Scotland and England, including the initial existing indigenous literature composed in the Celtic, Anglo-Saxon fiction and later English literature comprising of the contributions and compilations of William Shakespeare, John Milton and Geoffrey Chaucer. It supports numerous orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia as well as the London Philharmonic Orchestra. One of the world’s main classical music centres, London possess various significant concert halls and also serves as dwelling to one of the world’s preeminent opera houses, the Royal Opera House. The traditional music of Britain has always been influential all over the world. So a being a hub of major music development, various awards shows like the annual BPI’s pop music awards, the Brit Awards are organized every February at O2 Arena. It has also impacted the modern cinema by producing world’s renowned directors, actors, motion pictures and producers ever including, Charlie Chaplin, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Laurence Olivier, David Lean, Audrey Hepburn, Vivien Leigh, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Burton, Michael Caine, Daniel Day-Lewis and Anthony Hopkins. In sports one of the world’s renowned contributions made by United Kingdom is its football associations. The initial game rules for football were formulated in the UK as well as it possesses the world’s oldest football stadiums. The nations comprising UK participate in the world football events by their individual national teams and also take part in the domestic competitions. Apart from sports, art and literature, one of the most significant contributions made by United Kingdom is in the field of science and technology as world renowned scientists like Francis Bacon, Thomas Henry Huxley, Richard Trevithick, Francis Crick, Robert Hooke, Rosalind Franklin, Humphry Davy, J. J. Thomson, Robert Watson-Watt, Frederick Soddy, James Chadwick, John Cockcroft, Edmond Halley, Henry Bessemer, Charles Parsons, William Herschel, Joseph Priestley, Alan Blumlein, James Dewar, John Dalton, Charles Macintosh, Alexander Parkes, Henry Cavendish, Frank Pantridge, Lord Rayleigh, Adam Smith, Jim Marshall, Stephen Hawking and others (Oakes and Price, 2008). References Hobbs, J. J. (2008).World Regional Geography. 6th ed. Cengage Learning. Oakes, T., and Price, P. L. (2008). The Cultural Geography Reader. Taylor & Francis. Read More