Cardiff

Sister cities

• Hordaland
• Vigevano
• Nantes
• Bari
• Stuttgart
• Pernik
• Luhansk
• Xiamen

History

(the Welsh name of the city) derives from the Middle Welsh . The change from to shows the colloquial alteration of Welsh f and dd and was perhaps also driven by folk etymology. This sound change probably first occurred in the Middle Ages; both forms were current in the Tudor period. has its origins in post-Roman Brythonic words meaning "the fort of the Taff". The fort probably refers to that established by the Romans. is Welsh for fort and is a form of (Taff), the river which flows by Cardiff Castle, with the showing consonant mutation to , as is normal in compound words, and the vowel showing affection as a result of a (lost) genitive case ending. The anglicised Cardiff is derived from , with the Welsh f borrowed as ff , as also happens in Taff (from Welsh ) and Llandaff (from Welsh ). The antiquarian William Camden (1551–1623) suggested that the name Cardiff may derive from * ("the Fort of Didius"), a name supposedly given in honour of , governor of a nearby province at the time when the Roman fort was established. Although some sources repeat this theory, it has been rejected on linguistic grounds by modern scholars such as Professor Pierce. Archaeological evidence from sites in and around Cardiff show that people had settled in the area by at least around 6000 BC, during the early Neolithic: about 1,500 years before either Stonehenge or the Great Pyramid of Giza was completed. These include the St Lythans burial chamber near Wenvoe, (approximately west of Cardiff city centre); the Tinkinswood burial chamber, near St. Nicholas (about west of Cardiff city centre), the Cae'rarfau Chambered Tomb, Creigiau (about northwest of Cardiff city centre) and the Gwern y Cleppa long barrow, near Coedkernew, Newport (about northeast of Cardiff city centre).…

Geography

The centre of Cardiff is relatively flat and bounded by hills to the east, north and west. Its location influenced its development as the world's largest coal port, notably its proximity and easy access to the coalfields of the South Wales Valleys. The highest point in the local authority area is Garth Hill, above sea level. Cardiff is built on reclaimed marshland on a bed of Triassic stones. This reclaimed marshland stretches from Chepstow to the Ely Estuary, which is the natural boundary of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. Triassic landscapes of this part of the world are usually shallow and low-lying, consistent with the flatness of the centre of Cardiff. The classic Triassic marl, sand and conglomerate rocks are used predominantly throughout Cardiff as building materials. Many of these Triassic rocks are purplish, especially the coastal marl found near Penarth. One of the Triassic rocks used in Cardiff is "Radyr Stone", a freestone which as its name suggests is quarried in the Radyr district. Cardiff has also imported some materials for buildings: Devonian sandstones (the Old Red Sandstone) from the Brecon Beacons has been used. Most famously, the buildings of Cathays Park, the civic centre in the centre of the city, are built of Portland stone from Dorset. A widely used building stone in Cardiff is the yellow-grey Liassic limestone rock of the Vale of Glamorgan, including the rare "Sutton Stone", a conglomerate of lias limestone and carboniferous limestone. Cardiff is bordered to the west by the rural district of the Vale of Glamorgan, also known as the Garden of Cardiff, to the east by the city of Newport; to the north by the South Wales Valleys, and to the south by the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel. The River Taff winds through the city centre and…

Most-observed species

• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  13,834
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  12,825
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  12,540
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  12,410
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  12,375
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  10,952
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  9,410
• Lesser Black-backed Gull

  Larus fuscus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  9,190

Most recent

• M 3.4 — 2023-02-24
  1 km ENE of Brynmawr, United Kingdom
• M 3.4 — 2019-12-05
  1 km ESE of Taunton, United Kingdom
• M 4.3 — 2018-02-17
  5 km NE of Clydach, United Kingdom
• M 4.1 — 2014-02-20
  17 km NNW of Ilfracombe, United Kingdom
• M 3.9 — 2008-10-26
  2 km N of Bromyard, United Kingdom
• M 2.7 — 2006-09-26
  4 km SSW of Dorstone, United Kingdom