White Cliffs of Dover

Eight miles of chalk cliff reaching 110 metres, streaked with black flint and laid down in the Late Cretaceous, marking the point where Britain comes closest to the Continent. France is about twenty miles off and visible on a clear day. They have impressed visitors since antiquity: Julius Caesar remarked on them when he invaded in 55 BC. They served as a natural defensive barrier, reinforced by Dover Castle in the eleventh century, and became a symbol of British resolve in World War II, and the first sight of home for the men evacuated from Dunkirk.