Edinburugh

Edinburgh

Scotland is the northernmost of the four constituent parts that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, sharing a 60 mile long land border with England to the south and separated from Northern Ireland by the North Channel of the Irish Sea. Otherwise, Scotland is surrounded by the bracing waters of the North Sea to the east, and the North Atlantic Ocean to the west and north. There are many cities in Scotland saturated with mystery and which have interesting and rich history. One of them is Edinburgh ,the capital of Scotland, and its largest city is Glasgow.

Edinburgh is situated on the east coast of the central lowlands, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, on the North Sea. It has been the capital of Scotland since 1437 and is the seat of the Scottish Parliament. The city was one of the major centers of the enlightenment, led by the University of Edinburgh, gaining the nickname Athens of the North. In the census of 2001, Edinburgh had a total resident population of 448,624.Edinburgh is well-known for the annual Edinburgh Festival, the Hogmanay street party (31 December) and the Beltane celebrations (30 April).The city is one of Europe's major tourist destinations, attracting roughly 13 million visitors a year, and is the second most visited tourist destination in the United Kingdom, after London. The historic centre of Edinburgh is divided in two by the broad green swath of Princes Street Gardens. To the south the view is dominated by Edinburgh Castle. To the north lies Princes Street and the New Town. To the immediate west of the castle lies the financial district, housing insurance and banking buildings. Probably the most noticeable building here is Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

Old Town The Old Town has preserved its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings. Large squares mark the location of markets or surround major public buildings such as St Giles Cathedral and the Law Courts. Other notable places of interest nearby include the Royal Museum of Scotland, Surgeons' Hall, the University of Edinburgh, and numerous underground streets and vaults, relics of previous phases of construction.

New Town The New Town was the 18th century solution to the problem of an increasingly crowded Old Town. The principal street was to be George Street. The other main streets are Princes Street and Queen Street. Princes Street has since become the main shopping street in Edinburgh, and few Georgian buildings survive on it. The New Town was so successful that it was extended greatly. Today the New Town is considered by many to be one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture and planning in the world. A popular residential part of the city is its Southside.

Leith is the port of Edinburgh.Today the parliamentary seat is known as 'Edinburgh North and Leith'. With the redevelopment of Leith, Edinburgh has gained the business of a number of cruise liner companies who now provide cruises to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands

To the southeast of central Edinburgh stands the eminence known as Arthur's Seat, overlooking Holyroodhouse and the Old Town beside it. The crag is a collection of side vents of the main volcano on which Edinburgh is built. The volcano slipped and tipped sideways, leaving these vents as the highest points for miles around. Arthur's Seat is now part of Holyrood Park.

To the northeast, overlooking the New Town, is Calton Hill. It is topped by an assortment of buildings and monuments: two observatories, Nelson's Monument (a tower dedicated to Admiral Horatio Nelson), the old Royal High School (once almost the home of a devolved Scottish Assembly), and the unfinished National Monument, which is modeled on the Parthenon from the Athenian Acropolis and is nicknamed "Edinburgh's Disgrace". The nickname of the city, "Athens of the North", also hails partly from this monument.

Climate Like much of the rest of Scotland, Edinburgh has a temperate maritime climate, which is relatively mild despite its northerly latitude. Winters are especially mild. Summer temperatures are normally moderate, with daily upper maxima rarely exceeding 23Ð'oC. The proximity of the city to the sea mitigates any large variations in temperature or extremes of climate. Given Edinburgh's position between the coast and hills it is renowned as a windy city, with the prevailing wind direction coming from the south-west which is associated with warm, unstable air from the Gulf Stream that can give rise to rainfall - although far less than cities to the west such as Glasgow. Indeed Edinburgh has a lower annual precipitation than most UK cities

Demographics As of 2005, the General Register Office for Scotland estimated that the City of Edinburgh council area had a resident population of 457,830. The 2001 UK census reported the population to be 448,624, making the city the seventh largest in the United Kingdom. The General Register Office also reported that this resident population was split between 220,094 males and 237,736 females.

Whilst Edinburgh's population is ageing a very large and transient population of young students studying at the universities in the city offset this demographic problem somewhat. There are estimated to be around 100,000 students studying at the various Higher Education institutions in the city.

The population of the greater Edinburgh area (including parts of Fife and the Scottish Borders) is 1.25 million and is projected to grow to 1.33 million by 2020. City of Edinburgh Council hopes this will continue to grow to 1.5 million by 2040, which is in line with the current average population of the three leading city regions in northern Europe: Stockholm, Helsinki and Oslo.

Culture Culturally, Edinburgh is best known for the Edinburgh Festival, although this is in fact a series of separate events, which run from the end of July until early September each year. The longest established festival is the Edinburgh International Festival, which first ran in 1947. The International