1. Cymru am byth

2. Wales
Etymology
Cardiff
Colonisation
Medival Wales
Nationalist Revival
Politics
Law
Geography
Economy
Healthcare
Demography
Language
Religion
Sport
Transport
National Symbols
Photos of Wales

3. Official languages Welsh, English Demonym Welsh (Cymry)
Capital Cardiff
Largest city Cardiff
Official languages Welsh, English
Demonym Welsh (Cymry)
Government Constitutional monarchy
Queen (of the UK) Queen Elizabeth II
Prime Minister (of the UK) Gordon Brown
First Minister of Wales Rhodri Morgan
Deputy First Minister for Wales Ieuan Wyn Jones
Secretary of State Paul Murphy
Area
- Total 20,779 km² (8,022 sq mi )
Population
estimate 3,004,600 1
census 2,903,085
- Density 140/km² (361/sq mi )
Location of Wales (orange) in the United Kingdom (camel)
GDP (PPP) estimate
- Total US$48 billion
- Per capita US$19,546
HDI (2003) (high)
Currency Pound sterling (GBP)
Time zone GMT (UTC0)
- Summer (DST) BST (UTC+1)
Internet TLD .uk²
Calling code +44
Patron saint David
1 Office for National Statistics - UK population grows to more than 60 million
2 Also .eu, as part of the European Union. ISO is GB, but .gb is unused.

4. The English name "Wales" originates from the Germanic word Walha, meaning "foreigner," probably derived from the term Volcae.[citation needed] The term also appears in the "-wall" of Cornwall. The Welsh call their country Cymru in the Welsh language, which most likely meant "compatriots" in Old Welsh. The name competed for a long time in Welsh literature with the older name Brythoniaid (Brythons). Only after did the former become as common as the latter; both terms applied originally not only to the inhabitants of what is now called Wales, but in general to speakers of the Brythonic language and its descendants, many of whom lived in "the Old North": the placenames Cymru (Welsh for Wales) and Cumbria are of the same origin. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes were known indiscriminately as Saeson in Welsh (the term is cognate with "Saxon"; compare Gaelic Sassenach); Sais, plural Saeson, is the modern Welsh word for "Englishman."
There is also a medieval legend found in the Historia Regum Britanniae of Sieffre o Fynwy (Geoffrey of Monmouth) that derives it from the name Camber, son of Brutus and, according to the legend, the eponymous King of Cymru (Cambria in Latin); this, however, is considered largely the fruit of Geoffrey's vivid imagination. Cumberland and Cumbria in the North of England derive their names from the same Old Welsh word.

5. Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital and largest city of Wales. It is Wales's major commercial, sporting, tourism, transport, media and political centre. According to recent local government estimates, the population of the unitary authority area is 317,500.
The city of Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan . Cardiff was made a city in 1905, and proclaimed capital of Wales in Since the 1990s Cardiff has seen significant development with a new waterfront area at Cardiff Bay which contains the new Welsh Assembly Building, and the city centre is currently undergoing a major redevelopment.
Location of the city of Cardiff (Light Green) within Wales (Dark Green)
Flag
Coat of arms

6. Cardiff
Cardiff has many landmark buildings such as the Millennium Stadium, Pierhead Building and the National Assembly for Wales. However Cardiff is also famous for Cardiff Castle, St David's Hall, Llandaff Cathedral, the Wales Millennium Centre and Cathays Park (including municipal buildings modelled on those in New Delhi, such as Cardiff City Hall, the National Museum and Cardiff University). A prominent future landmark in Cardiff Bay, Bay Pointe which is set to include Wales' tallest building, has been granted planning permission.

7. Cardiff
Complementing Cardiff Castle is a second castle north of the city, called Castell Coch (Welsh: "Red Castle"). The current castle is an elaborately decorated Victorian folly designed by Burges for the Marquess and built in the 1870s. However, the Victorian castle stands on the footings of a much older medieval castle possibly built by Ifor Bach, a regional baron with links to Cardiff Castle also. The exterior has become a popular location for film and television productions.
Situated on the narrowest part of the south Wales coastal plain, Cardiff had a crucial strategic importance in the wars between the Normans (who had occupied lowland Wales) and the Welsh who maintained their hold on the uplands. As a result Cardiff claims to have the largest concentration of castles of any city in the world.[69] As well as Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch, the remains of Twmpath Castle,[70] the Llandaff Bishop's Palace and Saint Fagans Castle are still in existence, whilst the site of Treoda (or Whitchurch Castle) has now been built over.

8. The first documented history was recorded during the Roman occupation of Britain. At that time the area of modern Wales was divided into many tribes, of which the Silures in the south-east and the Ordovices in the central and north-west areas were the largest and most powerful. The Romans established a string of forts across what is now South Wales, as far west as Carmarthen (Caerfyrddin; Latin: Maridunum), and mined gold at Dolaucothi in Carmarthenshire. There is evidence that they progressed even farther west. They also built the legionary fortress at Caerleon (Latin: Isca Silurum), of which the magnificent amphitheatre is the best preserved in Britain. The Romans were also busy in Northern Wales, and the mediaeval Welsh tale Breuddwyd Macsen Wledig claims that Magnus Maximus (Macsen Wledig), one of the last western Roman Emperors, married Elen or Helen, the daughter of a Welsh chieftain from Segontium, present-day Caernarfon. It was in the 4th century during the Roman occupation that Christianity was introduced to Wales. After the Roman withdrawal from Britain in 410, much of the lowlands were overrun by various Germanic tribes. However, Gwynedd, Powys, Dyfed and Seisyllg, Morgannwg, and Gwent emerged as independent Welsh successor states. They endured, in part because of favourable geographical features such as uplands, mountains, and rivers and a resilient society that did not collapse with the end of the Roman civitas. The Saxons at anchor on the sea always The Cymry venerable until doomsday shall be supreme They will not seek books nor be covetous of poets The presage of this isle will be no other than this. [ from The Omen of Prydein The Great, Book of Taliesin VI ]

9. This tenacious survival by the Romano-Britons and their descendants in the western kingdoms was to become the foundation of what we now know as Wales. With the loss of the lowlands, England's kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria, and later Wessex, wrestled with Powys, Gwent, and Gwynedd to define the frontier between the two peoples.
Having lost much of the West Midlands to Mercia in the 6th century and early 7th century, a resurgent late 7th century Powys checked Mercian advancement. Aethelbald of Mercia, looking to defend recently acquired lands, had built Wat's Dyke. According to John Davies, this endeavour may have been with Powys king Elisedd ap Gwylog's own agreement, however, for this boundary, extending north from the valley of the River Severn to the Dee estuary, gave Oswestry (Welsh: Croesoswallt) to Powys.[citation needed] King Offa of Mercia seems to have continued this consultative initiative when he created a larger earth work, now known as Offa's Dyke (Welsh: Clawdd Offa). Davies wrote of Cyril Fox's study of Offa's Dyke:
Offa's Dyke largely remained the frontier between the Welsh and English, though the Welsh would recover by the 12th century the area between the Dee and the Conwy known then as the Perfeddwlad. By the 8th century the eastern borders with the Anglo-Saxons had broadly been set.

10. Following the successful examples of Cornwall in 722 and Brittany in 865, the Britons of Wales made their peace with the Vikings and asked the Norsemen to help the Britons fight the Anglo-Saxons of Mercia to prevent an Anglo-Saxon conquest of Wales. In 878 AD the Britons of Wales unified with the Vikings of Denmark to destroy an Anglo- Saxon army of Mercians. Like Cornwall in 722, this decisive defeating of the Saxons gave Wales some decades of peace from Anglo-Saxon attack. In 1063, the Welsh prince Gruffydd ap Llywelyn made an alliance with Norwegian Vikings against Mercia which, as in 878 AD was successful, and the Saxons of Mercia defeated. As with Cornwall and Brittany, Viking aggression towards the Saxons/Franks ended any chance of the Anglo- Saxons/Franks conquering their Celtic neighbours.

11. The southern and eastern lands lost to English
The southern and eastern lands lost to English settlement became known in Welsh as Lloegyr (Modern Welsh Lloegr), which may have referred to the kingdom of Mercia originally, and which came to refer to England as a whole. The Germanic tribes who now dominated these lands were invariably called Saeson, meaning "Saxons" The Anglo-Saxons, in turn, labelled the Romano- British as Walha, meaning 'foreigner' or 'stranger'. The Welsh continued to call themselves Brythoniaid (Brythons or Britons) well into the Middle Ages, though the first use of Cymru and y Cymry is found as early as 633 in the Gododdin of Aneirin. In Armes Prydain, written in about 930, the words Cymry and Cymro are used as often as times. It was not until about the 12th century however, that Cymry began to overtake Brythoniaid in their writings.
From the year 800 onwards, a series of dynastic marriages led to Rhodri Mawr's (r ) inheritance of Gwynedd and Powys. His sons in turn would found three principal dynasties (Aberffraw for Gwynedd, Dinefwr for Deheubarth, and Mathrafal for Powys), each competing for hegemony over the others. Rhodri's grandson Hywel Dda (r ) founded Deheubarth out of his maternal and paternal inheritances of Dyfed and Seisyllwg, oust the Aberffraw dynasty from Gwynedd and Powys, and codify Welsh law in 930, finally going on a pilgrimage to Rome (and allegedly having the Law Codes blessed by the Pope).

12. Maredudd ab Owain (r. 986-999) of
Maredudd ab Owain (r ) of Deheubarth (Hywel's grandson) would, (again) temporarily oust the Aberffraw line for control of Gwynedd and Powys. Maredudd's great-grandson (through his daughter Princess Angharad) Gruffydd ap Llywelyn (r ) would conquer his cousins' realms from his base in Powys, and even extend his authority into England Owain Gwynedd ( ) of the Aberffraw line was the first Welsh ruler to use the title princeps Wallensium (prince of the Welsh), a title of substance given his victory on the Berwyn Mountains, according to historian John Davies The Aberffraw dynasty would surge to pre eminence with Owain Gwynedd's grandson Llywelyn Fawr (the Great) (b ), wrestling concessions out of the Magna Carta in and receiving the fealty of other Welsh lords in 1216 at the council at Aberdyfi, becoming the first Prince of Wales. His grandson Llywelyn II also secured the recognition of the title Prince of Wales from Henry III with the Treaty of Montgomery in Later however, a succession of disputes, including the imprisonment of Llywelyn's wife Eleanor, daughter of Simon de Montfort, culminated in the first invasion by Edward I. As a result of military defeat, the Treaty of Aberconwy exacted Llywelyn's fealty to England in Peace was short lived and with the 1282 Edwardian conquest the rule of the Welsh princes permanently ended. With Llywelyn's death and his brother prince Dafydd's execution, the few remaining Welsh lords did homage for their lands to Edward I. Llywelyn's head was then carried through London on a spear; his baby daughter Gwenllian was locked in the priory at Sempringham, where she remained until her death fifty four years later.
To help maintain his dominance, Edward constructed a series of great stone castles. Beaumaris, Caernarfon, and Conwy were built mainly to overshadow the Welsh royal home and headquarters Garth Celyn, Aber Garth Celyn, on the north coast of Gwynedd.

13. In the 20th century, Wales saw a revival in its national status
In the 20th century, Wales saw a revival in its national status. Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925, seeking greater autonomy or independence from the rest of the UK. In 1955, the term England and Wales became common for describing the area to which English law applied, and Cardiff was proclaimed as capital city. In 1962 the Welsh Language Society (Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg) was formed in response to fears that the language might soon die out. Nationalism grew, particularly following the flooding of the Tryweryn valley in 1965, drowning the village of Capel Celyn to create a reservoir supplying water to Liverpool. In 1966 the Carmarthen Parliamentary seat was won by Plaid Cymru at a by-election, their first Parliamentary seat. A terror campaign was waged for a short period by the Free Wales Army and Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (MAC - Welsh Defence Movement). In the years leading up to the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in 1969, these groups were responsible for a number of bomb blasts destroying water pipes and tax and other offices. In 1967, the Wales and Berwick Act 1746 was repealed for Wales, and a legal definition of Wales, and of the boundary with England was stated. A referendum on the creation of an assembly for Wales in 1979 (see Wales referendum, 1979) led to a large majority for the "no" vote. However, in 1997 a referendum on the same issue secured a "yes", although by a very narrow majority. The National Assembly for Wales (Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru) was set up in 1999 (as a consequence of the Government of Wales Act 1998) and possesses the power to determine how the central government budget for Wales is spent and administered (although the UK parliament reserves the right to set limits on the powers of the Welsh Assembly). The 1998 Act was amended by the Government of Wales Act 2006 which enhanced the Assembly's powers, giving it legislative powers akin to the Scottish Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly. Following the 2007 Assembly election, the One Wales Government was formed under a coalition agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Labour Party, under that agreement, a convention is due to be established to discuss further enhancing Wales' legislative and financial autonomy.

14. The head of state in Wales, a
The head of state in Wales, a constituent part of the United Kingdom, is the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II (since 1952). Executive power is derived by the Queen, and exercised by the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster, with some powers devolved to the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff. The United Kingdom Parliament retains responsibility for passing primary legislation in Wales. The National Assembly has regulatory authority over laws passed that are applicable to Wales, and has limited power to vary these by secondary legislation. The National Assembly is not a sovereign authority, and the UK Parliament could, in theory, overrule or even abolish it at any time. However, its powers are set to increase as the Government of Wales Act 2006 will allow it to speed up the passage of 'Assembly Measures'.
In the British House of Commons, Wales is represented by 40 MPs (out of a total of 646) in the Welsh constituencies. Currently, Welsh Labour represents 29 of the 40 seats, the Liberal Democrats hold four seats, Plaid Cymru three and the Conservatives three. A Secretary of State for Wales sits in the UK cabinet and is responsible for representing matters that pertain to Wales. The Wales Office is a department of the United Kingdom government, responsible for Wales. The current Secretary of State for Wales is Paul Murphy, who replaced Peter Hain on 24 January 2008 over an investigation on undeclared donations.

15. England fully annexed Wales under the Laws in Wales Act 1535, in the reign of King Henry VIII. Prior to that Welsh Law had survived de facto after the conquest up to the 15th century in areas remote from direct English control. The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 provided that all laws that applied to England would automatically apply to Wales (and Berwick-upon- Tweed, a town located on the Anglo-Scottish border) unless the law explicitly stated otherwise. This act, with regard to Wales, was repealed in However, Wales and England, as part of the legal entity England and Wales, share the same legal system — except for a few changes to accommodate the autonomy recently afforded to Wales. In this sense, English law is the law of Wales.
English law is regarded as a common law system, with no major codification of the law, and legal precedents are binding as opposed to persuasive. The court system is headed by the House of Lords which is the highest court of appeal in the land for criminal and civil cases (although this is due to be replaced by a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom). The Supreme Court of Judicature of England and Wales is the highest court of first instance as well as an appellate court. The three divisions are the Court of Appeal; the High Court of Justice and the Crown Court. Minor cases are heard by the Magistrates' Courts or the County Court.

16. Wales is located on a peninsula in central-west. Great Britain
Wales is located on a peninsula in central-west Great Britain. Its area, the size of Wales, is about 20,779 km² (8,023 square miles - about the same size as Massachusetts, Slovenia or El Salvador and about a quarter of the size of Scotland). It is about 274 km (170 miles) north-south and km (60 miles) east-west. Wales is bordered by England to the east and by sea in the other three directions: the Môr Hafren (Bristol Channel) to the south, St. George's Channel to the west, and the Irish Sea to the north. Altogether, Wales has over 1,200 km (750 miles) of coastline. There are several islands off the Welsh mainland, the largest being Ynys Môn (Anglesey) in the northwest.
Much of Wales' diverse landscape mountainous, particularly in the north and central regions. The mountains were shaped during the last ice age, the Devensian glaciation. The highest mountains in Wales are in Snowdonia (Eryri), and include Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), which, at 1085 m (3,560 ft) is the highest peak in Wales.

17. Parts of Wales have been heavily industrialised since the 18th century and the early Industrial Revolution. Coal, copper, iron, silver, lead, and gold have been extensively mined in Wales, and slate has been quarried. By the second half of the 19th century, mining and metallurgy had come to dominate the Welsh economy, transforming the landscape and society in the industrial districts of south and north-east Wales. From the early 1970s, the Welsh economy faced massive restructuring with large numbers of jobs in traditional heavy industry disappearing and being replaced eventually by new ones in light industry and in services. Over this period Wales was successful in attracting an above average share of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the UK. However, much of the new industry has essentially been of a 'branch factory' type, often routine assembly employing low skilled workers.
In 2002, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Wales was just over £26 billion ($48 billion), giving a per capita GDP of £12,651 ($19,546). As of 2006, the unemployment rate in Wales stood at 5.7% - above the UK average, but lower than in the majority of EU countries.
Due to poor-quality soil, much of Wales is unsuitable for crop-growing, and livestock farming has traditionally been the focus of agriculture. The Welsh landscape (protected by three National Parks) and 42 Blue Flag beaches, as well as the unique culture of Wales, attract large numbers of tourists, who play an especially vital role in the economy of rural areas.

18. Public healthcare in Wales is provided by NHS Wales which was originally formed as part of the same NHS structure created by the National Health Service Act 1946 but with powers over the NHS in Wales coming under the Secretary of State for Wales in In turn, responsibility for NHS Wales was passed to the Welsh Assembly and Executive under devolution in NHS Wales provides public healthcare in Wales and employs some 90,000 staff, making it Wales’ biggest employer.The Minister for Health and Social Services is the person within the Welsh Assembly Government who holds cabinet responsibilities for both health and social care in Wales.

19. The population of Wales in the 2001 census was 2,903,085, which has risen to 2,958,876 according to 2005 estimates. This would make Wales the 132nd largest country by population if it were a sovereign state. According to the 2001 census, 96% of the population was White British, and 2.1% non-white (mainly of Asian origin).[31] Most non-white groups were concentrated in the southern cities of Cardiff, Newport and Swansea. Welsh Asian communities developed mainly through immigration since World War II. More recently, parts of Wales have seen an increased number of immigrants settle from recent EU accession countries such as Poland - although some Poles also settled in Wales in the immediate aftermath of World War II. In the 2001 Labour Force Survey, 72% of adults in Wales considered their national identity as wholly Welsh and another 7% considered themselves to be partly Welsh (Welsh and British were the most common combination). A recent study estimated that 35% of the Welsh population have surnames of Welsh origin (5.4% of the English population and 1.6% of the Scottish also bore 'Welsh' names).[32] However, some names identified as English (such as 'Greenaway') may be corruptions of Welsh ('Goronwy'). Other names common in Wales, such as 'Richards', may have originated simultaneously in other parts of Britain. In 2001 a quarter of the Welsh population were born outside Wales, mainly in England; about 3% were born outside the UK. The proportion of people who were born in Wales differs across the country, with the highest percentages in the South Wales Valleys, and the lowest in Mid Wales and parts of the north-east. In both Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil 92% were Welsh-born, compared to only 51% in Flintshire and 56% in Powys.[33] One of the reasons for this is that the locations of the most convenient hospitals in which to give birth are over the border in England.

20. The Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages be treated on a basis of equality. However, even English has only de facto official status in the UK (see Languages of the United Kingdom) and this has led political groups like Plaid Cymru to question whether such legislation is sufficient to ensure the survival of the Welsh language. English is spoken by almost all people in Wales and is therefore the de facto main language (see Welsh English). However, northern and western Wales retain many areas where Welsh is spoken as a first language by the majority of the population and English is learnt as a second language. 21.7% of the Welsh population is able to speak or read Welsh to some degree (based on the 2001 census), although only 16% claim to be able to speak, read and write it, which may be related to the stark differences between colloquial and literary Welsh. According to a language survey conducted in 2004, a larger proportion that 21.7% claim to have some knowledge of the language. Today there are very few truly monoglot Welsh speakers, other than small children, but individuals still exist who may be considered less than fluent in English and rarely speak it. There were still many monoglots as recently as the middle of the 20th century. Road signs in Wales are generally in both English and Welsh; where place names differ in the two languages, both versions are used (e.g. "Cardiff" and "Caerdydd"). During the 20th century a number of small communities of speakers of languages other than English or Welsh, such as Bengali or Cantonese, have established themselves in Wales as a result of immigration. This phenomenon is almost exclusive to urban Wales. The Italian Government funds the teaching of Italian to Welsh residents of Italian ancestry. These other languages do not have legal equality with English and Welsh, although public services may produce information leaflets in minority ethnic languages where there is a specific need, as happens elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Code-switching is common in all parts of Wales, and the result is known by various names, such as "Wenglish" or (in Caernarfon) "Cofi".

21. The largest religion in Wales is Christianity, with 72% of the population describing themselves as Christian in the 2001 census. The Presbyterian Church of Wales is the largest denomination and was born out of the Welsh Methodist revival in the 18th century and seceded from the Church of England in The Church in Wales is the next largest denomination, and forms part of the Anglican Communion. It too was part of the Church of England, and was disestablished by the British Government under the Welsh Church Act 1914 (the act did not take effect until 1920). The Roman Catholic Church makes up the next largest denomination at 3% of the population. Non-Christian religions are small in Wales, making up approximately 1.5% of the population. 18% of people declare no religion. The Apostolic Church holds its annual Apostolic Conference in Swansea each year, usually in August. The patron saint of Wales is Saint David (Welsh: Dewi Sant), with St David's Day (Welsh: Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant) celebrated annually on March 1. In 1904, there was a religious revival (known by some as the Welsh Revival or simply The 1904 Revival) which started t hrough the evangelism of Evan Roberts and took many parts of Wales by storm with massive numbers of people voluntarily converting to Christianity, sometimes whole communities. Many of the present-day Pentecostal churches in Wales claim to have originated in this revival. Islam is the largest non-Christian religion in Wales, with over 30,000 reported in the 2001 census. There are also communities of Hindus and Sikhs mainly in the South Wales cities of Newport, Cardiff and Swansea, while curiously the largest concentration of Buddhists is in the western rural county of Ceredigion. Judaism was the first non- Christian faith (excluding pre-Roman animism) to be established in Wales, however as of the year 2001 the community has declined to approximately 2,000.

22. The most popular sports in Wales are Rugby Union and football
The most popular sports in Wales are Rugby Union and football. Wales, like other constituent nations, enjoys independent representation in major world sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup, Rugby World Cup and in the Commonwealth Games (however as Great Britain in the Olympics). As in New Zealand, rugby is a core part of the national identity, although football has traditionally been more popular sport in the North Wales, possibly due to its close proximity to England's north-west. Wales has its own governing bodies in rugby, the Welsh Rugby Union and in football, the Football Association of Wales (the third oldest in the world) and most other sports. Many of Wales' top athletes, sportsmen and sportswomen train at the Welsh Institute of Sport and National Indoor Athletics Centre in Cardiff, the Wales National Velodrome in Newport and the Wales National Pool in Swansea. However the Cardiff International Swimming Pool is the only Olympic standard pool in Wales.

23. The main road artery linking cities and other settlements along the South Wales coast is the M4 motorway which also provides a link with England and eventually London. The Welsh section of the motorway, managed by the Welsh Assembly Government, runs from the Second Severn Crossing to Pont Abraham in West Wales, connecting cities such as Cardiff, Newport and Swansea. In North Wales the A55 expressway performs a similar role along the north Wales coast providing connections for places such as Holyhead and Bangor with Wrexham and Flintshire and also with England, principally Chester. The main north-south Wales link is the A470 which runs from Cardiff to Llandudno. Cardiff International Airport is the only large and international airport in Wales, offering links domestically and to European and North American destinations, located some 12 miles (19 km) south-west of Cardiff city centre, in the Vale of Glamorgan. The country also has a significant railway network managed by the Welsh Assembly Government which has a programme of reopening old railway lines and extending rail usage. Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street are the busiest and the major hubs on the internal and national network. Beeching cuts in the 1960s mean that most of the remaining network is geared toward east-west travel to or from England. Services from North to South Wales operate through the English towns of Chester and Shrewsbury. Valley Lines services operate in Cardiff, the South Wales Valleys and surrounding area and are heavily used as commuter lines. Arriva Trains Wales is the major operator of rail services within Wales. It operates routes from South East Wales to Crewe, Manchester and Cheltenham. Virgin Trains operate services from North Wales to London as part of the West Coast Main Line. First Great Western operate services from Cardiff and Swansea via Newport to London and services from Cardiff and Newport to southern England. CrossCountry offer services from Cardiff to Nottingham and Newcastle upon Tyne via the West Midlands, East Midlands and Yorkshire. Regular ferry services operate from Holyhead and Fishguard to Ireland.

24. National Symbols
The Flag of Wales incorporates the red dragon (Y Ddraig Goch) of Prince Cadwalader along with the Tudor colours of green and white. It was used by Henry VII at the battle of Bosworth in 1485 after which it was carried in state to St. Paul's Cathedral. The red dragon was then included in the Tudor royal arms to signify their Welsh descent. It was officially recognised as the Welsh national flag in The British Union Flag incorporates the flags of Scotland, Ireland and England but does not have any Welsh representation. Technically, however, it is represented by the flag of England due to the Laws in Wales act of 1535 which annexed Wales following the 13th century conquest.
The flag of Owain Glyndŵr, which has 4 squares alternating in red and yellow and then a rampant lion in each square of the opposite colour. Some believe that this is the true flag of Wales arguing that Owain Glyndŵr was the last real Prince of Wales.
The Dragon, part of the national flag design, is also a popular Welsh symbol. The oldest recorded use of the dragon to symbolise Wales is from the Historia Brittonum, written around 820, but it is popularly supposed to have been the battle standard of King Arthur and other ancient Celtic leaders. This myth is likely to have originated from Merlin's vision of a Red (The Native Britons) and White (The Saxon Invaders) dragon battling, with the Red dragon being victorious. Following the annexation of Wales by England, the dragon was used as a supporter in the English monarch's coat of arms.

25. National Symbols
The leek is also a national emblem of Wales. According to legend, Saint David ordered his Welsh soldiers to identify themselves by wearing the vegetable on their helmets in an ancient battle against the Saxons that took place in a leek field. It is still worn on St David's Day each March 1
The daffodil is the national flower of Wales, and is worn on St David's Day each March 1. (In Welsh, the daffodil is known as "Peter's Leek", cenhinen Bedr.)
The Sessile Oak is the national tree of Wales.
The Flag of Saint David is sometimes used as an alternative to the national flag (and used in part of Cardiff City FC's crest), and is flown on St David's Day.
The Coat of Arms of the Principality of Wales which are the historic arms of the Kingdom of Gwynedd are used by Charles, Prince of Wales in his personal standard.
The Prince of Wales's feathers, the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales is sometimes adapted by Welsh bodies for use in Wales. The symbolism is explained on the article for Edward, the Black Prince, who was the first Prince of Wales to bear the emblem; see also John, King of Bohemia. The Welsh Rugby Union uses such a design for its own badge. The national sport is often considered rugby union, though football is very popular too.
The red kite is sometimes named as the national symbol of wildlife in Wales.
Patriotic anthems for "the land of Song" include "God Bless the Prince of Wales", "Hen Wlad fy Nhadau" ("Land of My Fathers") (national anthem), "Men of Harlech", "Cwm Rhondda" (national hymn), "Delilah", "Calon Lan", "Sosban Fach".
Coat of Arms
Flag of Wales

26. Photos of Wales

27. Photos of Wales

28. Photos of Wales

29. I choose this topic because it’s very interesting and urgent for me now. This subject is closely connected with my future profession. People of different countries have their own traditions. And I think, it’s very important to know customs and traditions to that country, which you are going to visit. The national traditions absorb and reflect the historic experience of the post generations. The aim of my work is to describe is traditions and customs of Wales in details.
Now I shall read the most interesting passages from my project.