Download Wales

• Part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland.
• Area: 20,760 sq km (8,015 sq miles)
• Population: 2,798,200
• Languages: English (100%), Welsh (20%)
• Capital City: Cardiff
• National Motto: Cymru am Byth ("Wales for
Ever")
• The history of Wales begins with the arrival of Human beings in the region thousands of years
ago. Neanderthals lived in what is now Wales, or Cymru in walsh, at least 230,000 years
ago.Homo sapeins had arrived by about 31,000 BC. However, continuous habitation by
modern humans dates from the period after the end of the last ice age around 9000 BC, and
Wales has many remains from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Agethe Deceangli.
• Wales came into existence as a country with Henry the VIII’s Act of Union in 1536.
The origin of the word Wales is a strange one. It is a variation on a common word used
hundreds of years ago by the Anglo-Saxons to mean foreigners or outsiders. Independent
Principality 1400-1416.
Constituent of Kingdom of Great Britain (1707-1801) and United Kingdom (from 1801).
Wales in the Roman era
•
•
The Roman conquest of Wales began in AD 48 and was completed in 78, with
Roman rule lasting until 383. Roman rule in Wales was a military occupation, save
for the southern coastal region of south wales east of the Gower peninsula, where
there is a legacy of Romanisation.The only town in Wales founded by the
Romans, Caerwent, is located in South Wales. Both Caerwent and carmarthen, also
in southern Wales, would become Roman civitates.[During the occupation both the
region that would become Wales and its people were a mostly anonymous part of
Roman.
By AD 47 Rome had invaded and conquered all of southernmost and southeastern
Britain under the first Roman Governor of Britain. As part of the Roman conquest
of Britain, a series of campaigns to conquer Wales was launched by his successor in
48 and would continue intermittently under successive governors until the conquest
was completed in 78. It is these campaigns of conquest that are the most widely
known feature of Wales during the Roman era .
Modern history
• The modern history of Wales starts in the 19th century when South
Wales became heavily industrialized with ironworks; this, along
with the spread of coal mining to the Cynon and Rhhodda valleys
from the 1840s, led to an increase in population. The social effects
of industrialization resulted in armed uprisings against the mainly
English owners.
• The first decade of the 20th century was the period of the coal boom
in South Wales, when population growth exceeded 20 per cent.
Demographic changes affected the language frontier; the proportion
of Welsh speakers in the Rhondda valley fell from 64 per cent in
1901 to 55 per cent ten years later, and similar trends were evident
elsewhere in South Wales. The labour party replaced the Liberals as
the dominant party in Wales after the First world war particularly in
the industrial valleys of south wales.
• The Red Dragon of Wales was introduced to
Britain by the Romans some eighteen hundred
years ago.
• St. David is the patron saint of Wales.
• The leek is the emblem of Wales since the 16th
century.
• The daffodil is a Welsh national emblem.
• The origins of the Red
Dragon flag, or "y
Draig Goch" could date
back to the Roman
period.
• The dragon was used
by Roman military.
• After the Romans left,
the Red Dragon
remained as a key
emblem of Wales.
• Belongs to a branch of Celtic, an Indo-European
language.
• Their language is a distant cousin to Irish and
Scots Gaelic and a close brother to Breton.
• Welsh is still used by about half a million people
within Wales and possibly another few hundred
thousand in England and other areas overseas.
• English 100%, Welsh 20%.
Mountain
• Snowdon is the highest
mountain in Wales and
the
highest
British
mountain
outside
Scotland. The mountain
is located inside the
Snowdon National Park
in the north of Wales; a
popular tourist site for
hikers. It is 1085 meters
high and its name
derives from the Saxon
Snow Dun which can be
translated as Snow Hill.
Bells
• The
Gresford
Bells
belong to All Saint’s
Church in the old mining
village of Gresford near
Wrexham. The church
dates back to 1492 and
was
built
using
a
distinctive sandy brown
coloured stone called
Millstone Grit. The stone
used to be mined locally
and has been used in most
of the area’s construction.
Bridge
• Wales is a land of
mountains, valleys and
bridges. The most famous
bridge is the Llangollen
Bridge built in 1347 over
the River Dee. Llangollen
is in north Wales and is
also famous for the
International Eisteddfod;
an annual music festival
that has been going strong
since 1947.
Well
• At Holywell a small village
in Flintshire, North Wales,
you
can
visit
Saint
Winifrede’s well; a holy
well with water that is said
to have miraculous cures.
Christians believe that it
was on the site of this well
where Saint Winifrede’s
decapitated
head
was
miraculously attached once
more to her body. Many
religious pilgrims continue
to visit the well on a regular
basis.
Church steeple
• The steeple, or tower, of Saint
Giles’s Anglican Church in
Wrexham is considered the
fifth Wonder of Wales. The
design of the tower at Yale
University in the U.S.A was
based on the one at Saint
Giles’s
because
the
university’s benefactor, Elihu
Yale, had Welsh ancestry and
is actually buried in the
grounds of the church.
Trees
• At another church, the
Church of Saint Mary
the Virgin, in Overtonon-Dee, the yew trees
growing in the garden
are
Wales’s
sixth
wonder. The oldest trees
predate the church itself.
They are thought to be
around 2000 years old.
Waterfall
• the
Pistyll
Rhaeadr
waterfall in the Berwyn
Mountains is the seventh
wonder of Wales. It is
formed by the Afon
Disgynfa river flowing
over a 75 metre cliff face
and is sometimes called
“The hidden pearl of
Wales”. This is another
popular place for tourists
to Wales
The popular rhyme of
seven wonders
Wales is a land
of beautiful
nature, rich
culture and
amazing
architecture.