Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, lies in the eastern portion of the Central Lowlands near the coast of the North Sea. It is the seat of the Scottish Parliament and was once known as “the Athens of the North” during the Enlightenment period of the 18th century.
The city of Edinburgh is comprised of two distinct and historic sections that are divided by the Princes Street Gardens. To the south lies Old Town, site of the original city and home to Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Museum of Scotland.
To the north lies New Town, originally conceived by King James VII in the 17th century, featuring neo-classical construction that developed throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.
Princes Street Gardens is actually built on the site of Nor Loch, the town’s original water supply, which was drained and filled in with dirt from construction sites in New Town, becoming what is known as The Mound, site of the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy Building. The Gardens cover nearly 40 acres, running from St. John’s church in the west to Waverly Bridge in the east.
Edinburgh is bordered to the north by the Firth of Forth, an estuary of the River Forth that runs into the North Sea, and the Pentland Hills to the south. The city itself lies near an extinct volcano that produced a crag, upon which sits the castle, and a tail of igneous rock formation that served as a natural fortress.
The history of Edinburgh, which dates back through medieval times to the Iron and Bronze Ages, is responsible for the presence of numerous examples of Georgian architecture that can be found in the tenements of New Town and in the villas and other royal residences that characterize Old Town.