WALES - UK

Wales is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Wales is located in the south-west of the island of Great Britain and is bordered by England to the east, the Bristol Channel to the south and the Irish Sea to the west and north, and also by the estuary of the River Dee in the north-east. Wales is the largest principality in the world.

From the 19th century a the notion of a distinctive Welsh polity has emerged. Wales's largest city, Cardiff was formally recognised as the capital of Wales in 1955. A devolved legislature, the National Assembly for Wales was formed in 1999, with powers to amend primary legislation from the U.K. Parliament as well as propose and pass its own laws.

Too much people of Wales live in the coastal plains and valleys of the south, with a further significant population concentration in the north east.

The remaining areas in mid Wales, the north west and south west are predominantly rural and characterised by hilly and mountainous terrain.

Welsh cultural identity is represented by elements such as the Welsh language because of Europe's oldest spoken indigenous languages, ancient Welsh festivals and traditions, monastic asceticism, a highly evolved secular legal system, and a distinctive literary tradition and culture which emerged after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century.

Wales has never been a sovereign state, although a number of internal principalities remained independent until the Anglo-Norman conquest and the Welsh national hero Prince Owain Glynd briefly created an independent Welsh kingdom in the early 15th Century.