WALES


A. INTRODUCTION

Wales, country and principality, part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, united politically, legally, and administratively with England, and occupying a broad peninsula on the western side of the island of Great Britain. Wales also includes the island of Anglesey, which is separated from the mainland by the narrow Menai Strait. Wales is bounded on the north by the Irish Sea; on the east by the English counties of Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Gloucestershire; on the south by the Bristol Channel; and on the west by the St George’s Channel and Cardigan Bay. The maximum north-south length of the Welsh mainland is about 220 km (137 mi); in an east-west direction the width of the country varies between 60 and 155 km (36 and 96 mi). The total area of Wales is 20,760 sq km (8,015 sq mi). Cardiff is the capital, largest city, and principal seaport of Wales.

B. PRINCIPAL CITIES
The chief urban areas of Wales are the cities of Cardiff (population, 2000 estimate, 327,500), the capital, principal seaport, and commercial centre; Swansea (2000 estimate, 230,300), a seaport and industrial centre; Newport (1996 estimate, 136,789), an industrial centre that achieved city status in 2002 as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s jubilee celebrations; Wrexham (1991, 40,614); and Rhondda Cynon Taff (2001, 231,952), the former centre of the Welsh coal-mining industry and now mainly a suburban residential area with some light industry.



RIVERS AND LAKES
The River Dee, which rises in Lake Bala, the largest natural lake in Wales, and flows through northern Wales into England and then the Irish Sea, is one of the country’s principal rivers. The others are the Wye and the Severn, which both begin near Aberystwyth, flow eastward into England, and then turn south to empty into the Bristol Channel. In the south, many of the rivers flow through steep valleys, including the Usk, Teifi, and Towy. The main river of