Southampton - Hampshire - is one of the major ports in the United Kingdom. At the head of Southampton Water lie the sprawling docks that made the city Britain's main passenger port and the home of the Atlantic liners of the Cunard Company.

Its history goes back more than one thousand years; it was the site of the Roman port of Clausentum, it was William the Conqueror's port for his ships coming from Normandy; and it was from Southampton that the Pilgrim Fathers set sail in 1620 - though they called at Dartmouth and Plymouth before crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

The six miles of Quay include the Ocean Dock, where the Mauritania, Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Mary once towered above the warehouses. In Mayflower Park on the Western Esplanade a memorial marks the spot from which the Mayflower sailed. Close by, near the old entrance to the Royal Pier, there are regular ferry and hydrofoil services to the Isle of Wight.

Despite heavy bombing during the Second World War, Southampton still retains many of its old buildings, including the sixteenth century Tudor House, the Norman Bargate, and the towers of the old town walls. Wool House in Bugle Street, a medieval warehouse in which French prisoners of war were housed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is now a maritime museum, whose exhibits include a large model of the Queen Mary. The fifteenth century God's House Tower is an archaeological museum.

Southampton has excellent transport links with the rest of the country. There are motorways that connect it with other towns and cities on the south coast as well as to London. Rail routes run to most of the UK's major urban centres, and there is an international airport serving European destinations. It is also the closest city to the vast New Forest that can be easily reached in under an hour.