English Channel (Terra)

The English Channel (Terra) (French: la Manche, "the Sleeve" [hence German: Ärmelkanal]; Breton: Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; Cornish: Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"), also called simply the Channel, is the body of water that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the southern part of the North Sea to the rest of the Atlantic Ocean.

It is about 560 km (350 mi) long and varies in width from 240 km (150 mi) at its widest to 33.3 km (20.7 mi) in the Strait of Dover. It is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2 (29,000 sq mi).