The White Cliffs of Dover are cliffs which form part of the
English coastline facing the Strait of Dover and France. The cliffs are part of
the North Downs formation. The cliff face, which reaches up to 350 feet (110
m), owes its striking façade to its composition of chalk accentuated by
streaks of black flint. The cliffs spread east and west from the town of Dover
in the county of Kent, an ancient and still important English port.
The cliffs have great symbolic value in Britain because they
face towards Continental Europe across the narrowest part of the English
Channel, where invasions have historically threatened and against which the
cliffs form a symbolic guard. Because crossing at Dover was the primary route
to the continent before the advent of air travel, the white line of cliffs also
formed the first or last sight of England for travellers.
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