St Michael's Mount (Cornish name: Carrack Looz en Cooz) is a lofty pyramidal tidal island, exhibiting a curious combination of slate and granite, rising 400 yards (400 m) from the shore of Mount's Bay, situated in Penwith in west Cornwall, England, in the extreme south western peninsula of the island of Britain. It is united with Marazion by a natural causeway cast up by the sea, and passable only at low tide.

St. Michael's Mount

Its Cornish language name — literally, "the grey rock in the wood" — may represent a folk memory of a time before Mount's Bay was flooded. Certainly, the Cornish name would be an accurate description of the Mount set in woodland. Recollections of a forest sunk at the same time as the flooding of Lyonesse are strong in local legend.

Historically St Michael's Mount was a Cornish counterpart of Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, France.

The Eden Project

The Eden Project is a project conceived by Tim Smit to construct and maintain a large-scale environmental complex on a property located about 8 km (5 mi) from St Austell in Bodelva, Cornwall, UK. Although relatively new, the project has quickly become one of the most popular visitor attractions in the United Kingdom. The complex includes two giant, transparent domes, each emulating a natural biome, that house plant species from around the world. The first emulates a tropical environment, the other a warm temperate, Mediterranean-type environment. The project took 2½ years to construct and opened to the public in March 2001. The project is ongoing, and part of its purpose is to see how the different biomes develop over time.

Outside the Eden Project

The project is constructed in a disused china clay quarry. Visitors approach along roads to car parks at the top of the quarry and walk or bus to the entrance area, half-way down a gently sloping side. The entrance area includes the usual restaurant and gift shop, implemented in a more interesting way than is common. The entrance area also has some informational exhibits, some of which are animated.

Once into the attraction, there is a meandering path with views of the two biomes and of interesting planted landscapes (including, for example, colourful patterned areas which upon inspection prove to be vegetable gardens) and sculptures, such as a giant bee and towering robot-themed creature created from old electrical appliances.

Inside the Biomes