The English Channel is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean separating southern England from northern France, linking to the North Sea via the Strait of Dover.
Roughly 560 kilometres long, the Channel varies in width from 240 kilometres at its widest to just 34 kilometres at the Strait of Dover — its narrowest point and the site of the busiest shipping lane in the world. Covering around 75,000 square kilometres, it is the smallest of the shallow seas on Europe’s continental shelf. Historically, the Channel served as a natural moat, helping Britain resist invasion during the Napoleonic Wars and the Second World War, and underpinning its rise as a naval power. The northern English shore is more densely settled than the French coast to the south, with English and French the principal languages of the region.
