The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north. It is more than 970 kilometres (600 mi) long and 580 kilometres (360 mi) wide, covering 570,000 square kilometres (220,000 sq mi).
North Sea
The German North Sea coast
The Afsluitdijk (Closure-dike) is a major dam in the Netherlands
Zuid-Beveland, North Sea flood of 1953
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of England, Scotland and Wales. With an area of 209,331 km2 (80,823 sq mi), it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is dominated by a maritime climate with narrow temperature differences between seasons. The island of Ireland, with an area 40 per cent that of Great Britain, is to the west—these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands and named substantial rocks, form the British Isles archipelago.
Satellite image, 2012, with Ireland to the west and France to the south-east
Greek geographer, Pytheas of Massalia
View of Britain's coast from Cap Gris-Nez in northern France
The robin is popularly known as "Britain's favourite bird".