White Cliffs of Dover
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The White Cliffs of Dover are cliffs which form part of the English coastline facing the Strait of Dover and France. The cliffs are part of the North Downs formation. The cliff face, which reaches up to 350 ft, owes its striking façade to its composition of chalk accentuated by streaks of black flint. The cliffs spread east and west from the town of Dover in the county of Kent, an ancient and still important English port.
The cliffs have great symbolic value in Britain because they face towards Continental Europe across the narrowest part of the English Channel, where invasions have historically threatened and against which the cliffs form a symbolic guard. Because crossing at Dover was the primary route to the continent before the advent of air travel, the white line of cliffs also formed the first or last sight of England for travellers.
See also
- Albion, a name for Britain possibly derived from the colour of the cliffs
- Beachy Head
- Dover, New Jersey
- On a piece of chalk by Thomas Henry Huxley
- Samphire Hoe Country Park
- Seven Sisters, Sussex
- Shakespeare Cliff Halt railway station
- South Downs
- Møns Klint
- Kap Arkona
