Capitals of English Speaking Countires

There are many countries in the world where people speak English and this language is one of the official languages. The largest and most important of them are the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. The capitals of these countries are beautiful and interesting, and I would like to tell a little about every of them.

The capital of the United Kingdom is London. It is a very old and big city. London is situated at mouth of the Thames-river. It consists of several main districts, and also includes numerous suburbs. The main districts had formed during the long life of the city. For example, the City is the center of business life, or the Westminster where the Queen lives, or West-End, East-End and Cheap-Side… Names of all these districts are well-known in the world due to English literature.

There are many historic buildings, various museums, galleries, and other places of interest in London. The Tower is a world-famous symbol of London, it is more than 900 years old. Westminster Abbey was the coronation place for almost all English Kings and Queens. The Houses of Parliament, actually the seat of the British Parliament, has two towers one of which is the Clock Tower, or Big Ben - a famous London landmark. The world-famous Natural History Museum is known for its beautiful galleries and expositions. The National Gallery’s permanent collection includes Western European paintings.

Washington, the capital of the USA is located on the north bank of the Potomac River. Actually, the city of Washington with its suburbs represents a whole state of America – District of Columbia. Washington was founded in 1791 and named in honour of the first president of the USA, George Washington. It is one of the most unusual cities in the USA. And it is very beautiful, of course.

There is not much industry it the city. And – what is more interesting - no building in the city may be more than 40 metres tall. One can observe the city from a high point easily. The highest building in Washington is the Capitol, the seat of the American Congress. The White House is the residence of every president of the United States. The Pentagon, located in the suburb of Arlington, is the headquarters of the military department of the USA.

There are two universities in Washington, the Museum for Aeronautics and Cosmonautics, the National Art Gallery, the Cultural Center in Memory of John Kennedy and various libraries and laboratories. Washington is a large international traffic centre too.

The capital of Canada is Ottawa. It was founded in 1827 and called then Baytown. Later it was renamed to Ottawa because it stands a the river with this name. Ottawa became the capital of Canada in 1867. There is an international airport here, two universities (for English speaking and French speaking students). The National Gallery, the National Museum, the National Centre of Arts are situated in the capital of Canada too. The parliament of Canada is also situated in Ottawa.

Ottawa is called the Tulip City, because every spring thousands of tulips come to the city from the Netherlands. This is a regular present from the Queen of Netherlands Juliana, who stayed in Canada during World War II. She wanted to thank the Canadian people for the time she spent in Canada.

Canberra is the capital of Australia. It is not the biggest city with the population only of 280,000 people. Many cities in Australia are much larger, for example Sydney where 3.5 million people live. But Canberra is very beautiful. It was built in 1913 by architect Griffin and was planned as a capital. And in 1927 Canberra became the capital of Australia. There is a university and an international airport in this city.

Wellington was founded in 1840 and became the capital of New Zealand in 1865. Wellington is also a small city, where about 150,000 people live. It is situated in the south of the main Northern island and this the central point of New Zealand. There are industrial and other enterprises in the city, an university, the Academy of Fine Arts, galleries and museums, an observatory. A place of interest is also a cathedral in the neo-gothic style built in the middle of the 20th century. Wellington is known for its numerous bridges, tunnels, viaducts and winding streets.