England, whose area is a little larger than the state of Louisiana, lies in the northwest of Europe and is part of the UK. The UK is also called the United Kingdom, an abbreviated way of referring to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Another way of explaining the UK is to say that it is a political union made up of the four countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom also has several overseas territories. The UK is a constitional monarchy with all the countries sharing the same person-Queen Elizabeth II-as their monarch.

           England proper is a triangular shaped country with a long, irregular coastline equal to 1,150 miles. Its terrain consists of rugged highlands in the north, flat plains in the east, lowlands and rolling hills in the south, and moors in the southwest. The capital is London which also happens to be England's largest city. In the north, England borders on Scotland, and in the west, England borders on Wales. The rest of this island country is surrounded by sea: the Irish sea, the North Sea, and the English Channel in the south which seperates England from France.

           The Pennine Mountains curve down into England and end just below Manchester, a large city with high-technology industries. These mountains are often called the "spine" or the "backbone" of England and they cover the area known as the highlands. The longest river that flows only in England is the Thames which flows across the country in the south, east to west, and passes through London. The Thames and other rivers in the industrial parts of England were once so polluted that no edible fish could live in them. Then in the 1960s a clean-up campaign was inaugurated and the fish gradually came back to the rivers.

           Salisbury Plain, in the south, is the location of Stonehenge, one of the world's myserious marvels. No one knows why this gathering of giant stones came into existence, or how, exactly, human beings managed to put them into place.

           About 90 percent of England's population live in cities and some of the major ones include Birmingham (a place of steel manufacture), Leeds (where textiles, furniture, paper, leather and electrical equipment are produced), Sheffield (famous for its knives and other cutting tools), and Liverpool (with one of the largest harbors in the world).