Isle of Wight

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A satellite photograph of the Isle of Wight
A satellite photograph of the Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is an island that is just off the south coast of England. It is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) by 20 kilometers (13 miles) in size. About one hundred and twenty thousand people live on the island.

The Isle of Wight is known as a county. This means that it has a council of people who make decisions about some things that affect the people who live there. The county town of the island, which is the place where the council work from, is called Newport.

Lots of people like to go on holiday on the island. There are a lot of hotels and things for tourists to do there. Queen Victoria used to like to visit the Isle of Wight where she had a house called Osbourne House. Tourism is the most important industry on the island, and lots of people have jobs looking after tourists.

Over half of the island is offically designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is also widely recognised as the most important site in Europe for finding dinosaur remains.

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