Tamar Valley - border between Devon and Cornwall UK
The Tamar Valley is an area rich in beauty and history, possessing some of the finest scenery in the British Isles. The valley of the River Tamar - and its tributaries, the Tavy and Lynher - is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and much of the area forms part of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site.
The Tamar Valley offers a unique combination of breathtaking natural beauty, history and industrial heritage. Quiet villages, bustling towns full of quirky shops, beaches, moors, ancient harbours, magnificent industrial heritage and quiet country walks can all be found within a few short miles of the river.
Tamar River:
The Tamar (/ˈteɪmɑːr/; Cornish: Dowr Tamar)[3] is a river in south west England, that forms most of the border between England (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west). The area is a World Heritage Site due to its historic mining activities.
The Tamar's source is less than 6 km (3.7 mi) from the north Cornish coast, but it flows southward and its course runs across the peninsula to the south coast. The total length of the river is 61 miles (98 km).[4] At its mouth, the Tamar flows into the Hamoaze before entering Plymouth Sound, a bay of the English Channel. Tributaries of the river include the rivers Inny, Ottery, Kensey and Lynher (or St Germans River) on the Cornish side, and the Deer and Tavy on the Devon side.
The name Tamar (or Tamare) was mentioned by Ptolemy in the second century in his Geography. The name is said to mean Great Water.[5][6][7] The Tamar is one of several British rivers whose ancient name is assumed by some to be derived from a prehistoric river word apparently meaning dark flowing and which it shares with the River Thames.[8]
The seventh century Ravenna Cosmography mentions a Roman settlement named Tamaris, but it is unclear which of the towns along the Tamar this refers to. Plymouth, Launceston and the Roman fort at Calstock have been variously suggested.
Landscape:
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms and how they integrate with natural or man-made features.[1]
A landscape includes the physical elements of geophysically defined landforms such as (ice-capped) mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of land use, buildings and structures, and transitory elements such as lighting and weather conditions.
Combining both their physical origins and the cultural overlay of human presence, often created over millennia, landscapes reflect a living synthesis of people and place that is vital to local and national identity. The character of a landscape helps define the self-image of the people who inhabit it and a sense of place that differentiates one region from other regions. It is the dynamic backdrop to people’s lives. Landscape can be as varied as farmland, a landscape park, or wilderness.
The Earth has a vast range of landscapes, including the icy landscapes of polar regions, mountainous landscapes, vast arid desert landscapes, islands and coastal landscapes, densely forested or wooded landscapes including past boreal forests and tropical rainforests, and agricultural landscapes of temperate and tropical regions...
United States:
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S.) or America (/əˈmɛrɪkə/), is a federal republic[16][17] composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions.[fn 6] Forty-eight states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.[19]
At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km2)[20] and with over 324 million people, the United States is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area,[fn 7] and the third-most populous. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city is New York City; twelve other major metropolitan areas—each with at least 4.5 million inhabitants—are Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Miami, Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Riverside.