Edinburgh

1. Edinburgh

2. Edinburgh • Is the capital of Scotland and its second largest city, after Gladgow. It has been the capital of Scotland since 1437 • Edinburgh had a total resident population of 448,624. • The city is one of Europe's major tourist destinations, attracting around 13 million visitors a year, and is the second most visited tourist destination in the United Kingdom, after London. • It is in the south-east of Scotland • The most famous of these events are the Edinburgh Fringe (the largest performing arts festival in the world).

4. Etymology • The origin of the city's name in English is understood to come from the Brythonic Din Eidyn from the time when it was a Gododdin hillfort. In the 1st century the Romans recorded the Votadini as a Brythonic tribe in the area, and about 600 A.D. • It came to be known to the English, the Bernician Angles, as Edin-burh, which some people once believed derived from the Old English for "Edwin's fort", with a reference to the 7th century king Edwin of Northumbria. However, since the name apparently predates King Edwin, this is highly unlikely. • Some have called Edinburgh the Athens of the North for its intellectual history, and for its topography, with the Old Town of Edinburgh performing a similar role to the Athenian Acropolis.

5. Old Town and New town • The Old Town has preserved its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings • The street layout is typical of the old quarters of many northern European cities, and where the castle perches on top of a rocky crag • The New Town was an 18th century solution to the problem of an increasingly crowded Old Town. • In 1766 a competition to design the New Town was won by James Craig, a 22-year-old architect. • The New Town was so successful that it was extended greatly. • Today the New Town is considered by many to be one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture and planning in the world.

6. Climate and Demographics • Like much of the rest of Scotland, Edinburgh has a temperate maritime climate, which is relatively mild despite its northerly latitude. • Summer temperatures are normally moderate, with daily upper maxima rarely exceeding 28 °C. • As of 2005, the population was estimated that the City of Edinburgh council area had a resident population of 457,830. • this resident population was split between 220,094 males and 237,736 females. • Though Edinburgh's population is ageing, a very large and transient population of young students studying at the city universities, has offset this demographic problem.

8. Culture, Geology and Transport • Edinburgh is a major transport hub in east central Scottland, with arterial road and rail routes that connect the city to the rest of Scotland and with England. • Edinburgh is home to a large number of museums and libraries, especially ones that are considered the main national institutions. • Some 350 and 400 million years ago, the cores of several volcanic vents in the area cooled and solidified to form tough basalt volcanic plugs. Later, during the last ice age, glaciers moving from west to east eroded the area to its current conformation.